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ECHOES 

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FROM THE SOUTH 

COMPRISING 



THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECHES, PROCLAMATIONS, 

AND PUBLIC ACTS EMANATING FROM THE 

SOUTH DURING THE LATE WAR, 



-O 



.^^ 



0^lvv/t*A^A ( 




NEW YORK : 
E. B. TEEAT & CO 



BALTEVIORE, Md., L. T. PALMER & CO. ST. LOUIS. Mo., L S. BEAINAED. 

LOUISVILLE, Ky., G. B. FESSENDEN & CO. 

CHAELESTON, S. C, ROBT. WILSON. MEMPHIS, Tekn., J. B. SUTTON. 

GEO. W. LOYD, AUGUSTA, Ga., and AUBURN, Ala, 






Entebed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

E. B. TREAT. 

in the Clerk's OflQ.ce of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



MACSOIIALI) * 9T0HE, PRIHTERS AlID STERtOTYPERS, 43 GENTRI SIHHT, ». T 



I^OTICE. 



The Publishers jpreseid this little volume to the 
jpublio in the belief that a record of the great 
sjpeeches and jpublio acts emanating from the South 
during the late struggle, will prove, as a matter 
of History, both ojaluable and interesting to all 
classes of reader's. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Speech of Hon. A. H. Stephens, delivered in the Hall 
of the House of Representatives of Georgia, Nov. 
14, 1860, 7 

Declaration of Causes which induced the Secession of 

South Carolina, ...... 4-5 

Ordinances of SE€|te,siON : 

^ South Carolina, 56 

Louisiana, 57 

Alabama, 58 

Arkansas, 61 

North Carolina, . . . . . .63 

Virginia, 65 

Texas, .67 

Mississippi, 69 

Florida, . . 69 

Georgia, . . 71 

Speech of Jefferson Davis, on leaving the United States 

Senate, - . .72 



VI CONTENTS. ^ 

PAGE 

Afeioan Slaveet, the Coenee-Stone of the Southeen 
CoNFEDEEAOY. A Speech by Hon. Alexander H. 
Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States of 
America, delivered at the Atheneum, Savannah, 

March, 22, 1861, 77 

Robeet Toombs' Addeess to the People of Geoegia, 

Telegraphed froi^ Washington Dec. 23, 1860, . 103 

The Constitution of the Confedeeate States of 
Ameeioa, ........ 105 

The Confedeeate Cabinet and Congeess, . .134 

Inaugueal Addeess of Jeffeeson Davis, . . 137 
Speech of Peesident Davis, at Richmond June 1, 1861, 14G 
Speech of Ex-Governoe Heney A. Wise, . . . 150 
Peoolamation by Jeffeeson Davis, Granting Letters 

of Marque, ....... 154 

Speech of Hon. A. H. Stephens, at Atlanta, Ga., April 

30, 1861, 157 

Speech of J. M. Mason, at Richmond, Ya., June 8, 1861, 166 
Sam Houston's Speech, at Independence, Texas, May 10, 174 
Speech of Howell Cobb, at Atlanta, Ga., May 22, 1861, 182 
Gen. R. E. Lee's Addeess to his Teoops, ' . . 188 

Speech of Hon. A. H. Stephens, at Richmond, Va., 

April 22, 1861, 191 

The Last Manifesto of the Confedeeate Congeess, 196 
The Last Peoolamation of Peesident Davis, . . 203 
Geneeals of the Confedeeate Aemy, . . . 206 



ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS, 

DELIVEEED IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPEESENTAT1YE8 
OF GEOEGIA, NOV. 14, 1860. 

rELLow-CiTizENS I I appear before jou to-night 
at the request of members of the Legislature and 
others to speak of matters of the deepest interest 
that can possibly concern us all of an earthly char- 
acter. There is nothing — no question or subject 
connected with this life — that concerns a free people 
so intimately as that of the Government under whic^h 
they live. We are now, indeed, surrounded by evils, 
l^ever since I entered upon the public stage has the 
country been so environed with difficulties and dan- 
gers that threatened the public peace and the very 
existence of society as now. I do not now appear 



o ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

before you at mj own instance. It is not to gratify 
desire of mj own that I am here. Had I consulted 
mj own ease and pleasure I should not be before 
you ; but, believing that it is the duty of every good 
citizen to give his counsels and views whenever the 
country is in danger, as to the best policy to be 
pursued, I am here. For these reasons, and these 
only, do I bespeak a calm, patient, and attentive 
bearing. 

My object is not to stir up strife, but to allay it ; 
not to appeal to your passions, but to your reason. 
Good governments can never be built up or sus- 
tained by the impulse of passion. I wish to address 
myself to your good sense, to your good judgment, 
and if after hearing you disagree, let us agree to dis- 
agree, and part as we met, friends. We all have the 
same object, the same interest. That people should 
disagree in republican governments, upon questions 
of public policy, is natural. That men should dis- 
agree upon all matters connected with human inves- 
tigation, whether relating to science or human 
conductj is natural. Hence, in free governments, 
parties will arise. But a free people should express 
their different opinions with liberality and charity, 
with no acrimony towaids those of their fellows, 
when honestly and sincerely given. These are my 
feelings to-night. 



Si'EECn OF HOX. A. H. STEPHEN'S. 9 

Let ns, therefore, reason together. It is not my 
purpose to say aught to wound the feelings of any 
individual who may be present; and if in the ardency 
with which I shall express my opinions, I shall say 
anything which may be deemed too strong, let it be 
set down to the zeal with which I advocate my own 
convictions. There is with me no intention to irri- 
tate or ofiend. 

The first question that presents itself is, shall the 
people of the South secede from the Union in conse- 
quence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presi- 
dency of the United States? My countrymen, I tell 
you franMy^ oandidly^ and earnestly^ that I do 7iot 
thinh that they ought. In my judgment, the elec- 
tion of no man, constitutionally chosen to that high 
office, is sufficient cause for any State to separate 
from the Union. It ought to stand by and aid still 
in maintaining the constitution of the country. To 
make a point of resistance to the Government, to 
withdraw from it because a man has been constitu- 
tionally elected, puts us in the wrong. We are 
pledged to maintain the Constitution. Many of 
us have sworn to support it. Can we, therefore, for 
the mere election of a man to the Presidency, and 
that, too, in accordance with the prescribed forms of 
the Constitution, make a point of resistance to the 
Government without becoming the breakers of that 



10 ECHOES EKOM THE SOUTH. 

sacred instrument ourselves, withdraw ourselves 
from it ? Would we not be in the wrong ? What- 
ever fate is to befall this country, let it never be laid 
to the charge of the people of the South, and espec- 
ially to the people of Georgia, that we were untrue 
to our national engagements. Let the fault and the 
wrong rest upon others. If all our hopes are to be 
blasted, if the Republic is to go down, let us be 
found to the last moment standing on the deck, with 
the Constitntion of the United States waving over 
our heads. (Applause.) Let the fanatics of the 
Xorth break the Constitution, if such is their fell 
pui'pose. sLet the responsibility be upon them. I 
shall speak presently more of their acts ; but let not 
the South, let us not be the ones to commit the ag- 
gression. We went into the election with this 
people. The result was different from what we 
wished ; but the election has been constitutionally 
held. Were we to make a point of resistance to 
the Government and go out of the Union on that 
account, the record would be made up hereafter 
against us. 

But it is said Mr. Lincoln's policy and principles 
J are against the Constitution, and that if he carries 
them out it will be destructive of our rights. Let us 
not anticipate a threatened evil. If he violates the 
Constitution then will come our time to act. Do 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHEA'3. 11 

not let us break it because, forsooth, lie may. If he 
does, that is the time for us to strike. (Applause.) 
I think it would be injudicious and unwise to do 
this sooner. I do not anticipate that Mr. Lincoln 
will do anything to jeopardize our safety or security, 
whatever may be his spirit to do it; for he is bound 
by the constitutional checks which are thrown 
around him, which at this time renders him power- 
less to do any great mischief. This shows the wis- 
dom of our system. The President of the United 
States is no emperor, no dictator — he is clothed 
with no absolute power. He can do nothing unless 
he is backed by power in Congress. The House of 
Representatives is largely in the majority against 
him. 

In the Senate he will also be powerless. There 
will be a majority of four against him. This, after 
the loss of Bigler, Fitch, and others, by the unfortu- 
nate dissensions of the l^ational Democratic party 
in their States. Mr. Lincoln cannot appoint an offi- 
cer without the consent of the Senate — he cannot 
form a Cabinet without the same consent. He will 
be in the condition of George IIL, (the embodiment 
of Toryism,) who had to ask the Whigs to appoint 
his ministers, and was compelled to receive a cabinet 
utterly opposed to his views ; and so Mr. Lincoln 
will be compelled to ask of the Senate to choose for 



12 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

him a cabinet, if the Democracy of that body choose 
to put him on such terms. He will be compelled to 
do this or let the Government stop, if the National 
Democratic men — for that is their name at the North 
— ^the conservative men in the Senate, should so 
determine. Then, how can Mr. Lincoln obtain a 
cabinet vrhich would aid him, or allow him to violate 
the Constitution ? 

Why then, I say, should we disrupt the ties of 
this Union when his hands are tied, when he can do 
nothing against us? I have heard it mooted that no 
man in the State of Georgia, wlio is true to her 
interests, could hold office under Mr. Lincoln. But, 
I ask, who appoints to office ? Not the President 
alone-; the Senate has to concur. No man can be 
appointed without the consent of the Senate. Should 
any man then refuse to hold office that was given to 
him by a Democratic Senate ? [Mr. Toombs inter- 
rupted and said if the Senate was Democratic it was 
for Mr. Breckinridge,] Well, then, continued Mr. 
S., I apprehend no man could be justly considered 
untrue to the interests of Georgia, or incur any dis- 
grace, if the interests of Georgia required it, to hold 
an office which a Breckinridge Senate had given 
him, even though Mr. Lincoln should be President. 
(Prolonged applause, mingled with interruptions.) 

I trust, my countrymen, you will be still and 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 13 

silent. I am addressing your good sense. I am 
giving you my views in a calm and dispassionate 
manner, and if any of you differ with me, you can, 
on any otber occasion, give your views as I am doing 
now, and let reason and true patriotism decide be- 
tween us. In my judgment, I say, under such cir- 
cumstances, there would be no possible disgrace for a 
Southern man to hold office. 'No man will be suf- 
fered to be appointed, I have no doubt, who is not 
true to the Constitution, if Southern Senators are 
true to their trusts, as I cannot permit myself to 
doubt that they will be. 

My honorable friend who addressed you -last 
night, (Mr. Toombs,) and to whom I listened with 
the profoundest attention, asks if we would submit 
to Elack Repiiblican rule ? I say to you and to him, 
as a Georgian, I never would submit to any Black 
Kepublican aggression upon our constitutional 
rights. I will never consent myself, as much as I 
admire this Union for the glories of the past, or the 
blessings of the present, as much as it has done for 
the people of all these States, as much as it has done 
for civilization, as much as the hopes of the world 
hang upon it, I would never submit to aggression 
upon my rights to maintain it longer; and if they 
cannot be maintained in the Union, standing on the 
Georgia platform, where I have Btood from the time 



14: ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

of its adoption, I would be in favor of disrupting 
every tie vv^hicli binds the States together. 

I will have equality for Georgia and for the 
citizens of Georgia in this Union, or I will look for 
new safeguards elsewhere. This is my position. 
The only question now is, can they be secured in the 
Union ? That is what I am counselling with you 
to-night about. Can it be secured? In my judg- 
ment it may be, but it may not be ; but let us do all 
we can, so that in the future, if the worst come, it 
may never be said we were negligent in doing our 
duty to the last. 

My countrymen, I am not of those who believe 
this Union has been a curse up to this time. True 
men, men of integrity, entertain different views from 
me on this subject. I do not question their right to 
do so; I would not impugn their motives in so 
doing. Il^or will I undertake to say that this Gov- 
ernment of our fathers is perfect. There is nothing 
perfect in this world of a human origin. JSTothing 
connected with human nature, from man himself to 
any of his works. You may select the wisest and 
best men for your judges, and yet how many defects 
are there in the administration of justice ? You 
may select the wisest and best men for your legis- 
lators, and yet how many defects are apparent in 
your laws ? And it is so in our Government. 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 15 

But that this Government of our fathers, with all 
its defects, comes nearer the objects of all good 
Governments than any other on the face of the earth 
is mj settled conviction. Contrast it now with any 
on the face of the earth. [England, said Mr. 
Toombs.] — England, my friend says. "Well, that is 
the next best, I grant; but I think we have improved 
upon England. Statesmen tried their apprentice 
hand on the Government of England, and then ours 
was made. Ours sprung from that, avoiding many 
of its defects, taking most of the good and leaving 
out many of its errors, and from the whole construct- 
ing and building up this model Republic — the best 
which the history of the world gives an account 
of. 

Compare, my friends, this Government with that 
of Spain, Mexico, and South American Republics, 
Germany, Ireland — are there any sons of that down- 
trodden nation here to-night ?— Prussia, or if you 
travel further East, to Turkey or China. Whei'e 
will you go, following the sun in its circuit round 
our globe, to find a Government that better protects* 
the liberties of its people, and secures to them the 
blessings we enjoy ? (Applause.) I think that one 
of the evils that beset us is a surfeit of liberty, an 
exuberance of the priceless blessings for which we 
are ungrateful. We listened to my honorable friend 



16 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

who addressed you last night, (Mr. Toombs,) as he 
recounted the evils of this Government. 

The first was the fishing bounties, paid mostly to 
the sailors of 'New England. Our friend stated that 
forty-eight years of our Government was under the 
administration of Southern Presidents. Well, these 
fishing bounties began under the rule of a Southern 
President, I believe. No one of them during the 
whole forty-eight years ever set his Administration 
against the principle or policy of them. It is not 
for me to say whether it was a wise policy in the 
beginning; it probably was not, and I have nothing 
to say in its defence. But the reason given for it 
,was to encourage our young men to go to sea and 
learn to manage ships. We had at the time but a 
small navy. It was thought best to encourage a 
class of our people to become acquainted with seafar- 
ing life ; to become sailors ; to man our naval 
ships. It requires practice to walk the deck of a 
ship, to pull the ropes, to furl the sails, to go aloft, to 
climb the mast ; and it was thought, by offering this 
bounty, a nursery might be formed in which young 
men would become perfected in these arts, and it 
applied to one section of the country as well as to 
any other. 

The result of this was, that in the war of 1812 
our sailors, many of whom came from this nursery, 



SPEECH OF HOX. A. H. STEniEXS. IT 

were equal to any that England brought against us. 
At any rate, no small part of the glories of that war 
were gained by the veteran tars of America, and the 
object of these bounties was to foster that branch of 
the national defence. My opinion is, that whatever 
may have been the reason at first, this bounty ought 
to be discontinued — the reason for it at first no 
longer exists. A bill for this object did pass the 
Senate the last Congress I was in, to which my 
honorable friend contributed greatly, but it was not 
reached in the House of Representatives. I trust 
that he will yet see that he may with honor continue 
his connection with the Government, and that his 
eloquence, unrivalled in the Senate, may hereafter, 
as heretofore, be displayed in having this bounty, so 
obnoxious to him, repealed and wiped ofi:* from the 
statute book. 

The next evil that my friend complained of was 
the Tariff. Well, let us look at that for a moment. 
About the time I commenced noticing public 
matters, this question was agitating the country 
almost as fearfully as the slave question now is. In 
1832, when I was in college. South Carolina was 
ready to nullify or secede from the Union on this 
account. And what have we se^n ? The Tariff no 
longer distracts the public councils. Reason has 
triumphed! The present Tariff was voted for by 



18 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

Massachusetts and South Carolina. The lion and 
the lamb lay down together — every man in the 
Senate and House from Massachusetts and South 
Carolina, I think, voted for it, as did my honorable 
friend himself. And if it be true, to use the figure 
of speech of my honorable friend, that every man in 
the J^orth that works in iron and brass and wood has 
'his muscle strengthened by the protection of the 
Government, that stimulant was given by his vote, 
and I believe every other Southern man. So we 
ought not to complain of that. 

Mr. Toombs — The tariff assessed the duties. 
Mr. Stephens — Yes, and Massachusetts with 
unanimity voted with the South to lessen them, and 
they were made just as low as Southern men asked 
them to be, and that is the rates they are now at. 
If reason and argument, with experience, produced 
such changes in the sentiments of Massachusetts 
from 1832 to 1857, on the subject of the Tariff, may 
not like changes be effected there by the same 
means — reason and argument, and appeals to patriot- 
ism on the present vexed question ; and who can say 
that by 1875 or 1890 Massachusetts may not vote 
with South Carolina and Georgia iipon all those 
questions that now distract the country, and 
threaten its peace and existence. I believe in the 
power and efficiency of truth, in the omnipotence of 



SPEECH OF HON. A. U. STEPHENS. 10 

truth, and its ultimate triumph when properly 
wielded. (Applause.) 

Another matter of grievance alluded to by my 
honorable friend 'was the navigation laws. This 
policy was also commenced under the Adminis- 
tration of one of these Southern Presidents who 
ruled so well, and has been continued through all of 
them since. The gentleman's views of the policy of 
these laws and my own do not disagree. We 
occupied the same ground in relation to them in 
Congress. It is not my purpose to defend them 
now. But it is proper to state some matters con- 
nected with their origin. 

One of the objects was to build up a commercial 
American marine by giving American, bottoms the 
exclusive carrying trade between our own ports. 
This is a great arm of national power. This object 
was accomplished. "We have now an amount of 
shipping, not only coastwise, but to foreign coun- 
tries, which puts us in the front rank of the nations 
of the world. England can no longer be styled 
the Mistress of the Seas. What American is 
not proud of the result ? Whether those laws 
should be continued is another question. But 
one thing is certain: no President, I^orthern or 
Southern, has ever yet recommended their re- 
peal. And my friend's efforts to get them 



20 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

repealed were met with but little favor, ITorth 
or South. 

These, then, were the true main grievances or 
grounds of complaint against the general system of 
our Government and its workings — I mean the 
administration of the Federal Government. As to 
the acts of the Federal States, I shall speak 
presently, but these three were the main ones used 
against the common head. Now, suppose it be 
admitted that all of tliese are evils in tlie sj^stem, do 
they overbalance and outweigh the advantages and 
great good which this same Government affords in a 
thousand innumerable ways that cannot be esti- 
mated ? Have we not at the South, as well as at 
the North, grown great, prosperous, and happy 
under its operation ? Has any part of the world 
ever shown such rapid progress in the development 
of wealth, and all the material resources of national 
power and greatness, as the Southern States have 
nnder the General Government, notwitstanding all^ 
its defects ? 

Mr. Toombs — In spite of it. 

Mr. Stephens — My honorable friends says we 
have, in spite of the General Government ; that 
without it I suppose he thinks we might have done 
as well, or perhaps, than we have done this in spite 
of it. That may be, and it may not be ; but the 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 21 

great fact that we have grown great and powerful 
under the Government as it exists, there is no con- 
jecture or speculation about that; it stands out bold, 
high, and prominent like your Stone Mountain, to 
which the gentleman alluded in illustrating home 
facts in his record — this great fact of our unrivalled 
prosperity in the Union as it is admitted ; whether 
all this in spite of the Government — whether we of 
the South would have been better off without the 
Government — is, to say the least, problematical. 
On the one side we can only put the fact against 
speculation and conjecture on the other. But even 
as a question of speculation I differ with my dis- 
tinguished friend. 

What we would have lost in border wars without 
the Union, or what we have gained simply by the 
peace it has secured, no estimate can be made of. 
Our foreign trade, which is the foundation of all 
our prosperity, has the protection of the navy, which 
drove the pirates from the waters near our coast, 
where they had been buccaneering for centuries 
before, and might have been still had it not been for 
the American JS'avy under the command of such 
spirits as Commodore Porter. Now that the coast 
is clear, that our commerce flows freely outwardly, 
we cannot well estimate how it would have been 
under other circumstances. The influence of the 



22 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

Grovernment on us is like that of the atmosphere 
around us. Its benefits are so silent and unseen 
that the J are seldom thought of or appreciated. 

We seldom think of the single element of oxygen 
in the air we breathe, and yet let this simple, unseen, 
and unfelt agent be withdrawn, this life-giving ele- 
ment be taken away from this all-pervading fluid 
around us, and what instant and appalling changes 
would take place in all organic creation. 

It may be that we are all that we are in " spite 
of the General Government,'' but it may be that 
without it we should have been far diiferent from 
what we are now. It is true there is no equal part 
of the earth with natural resources superior perhaps 
to ours. That portion of this country known as the 
Southern States, stretching from the Chesapeake to 
the Rio Grande, is fully equal to the picture drawn 
by the honorable and eloquent Senator last night, in 
all natural capacities. But how many ages and 
centuries passed before these capacities were devel- 
oped to reach this advanced age of civilization ? 
There these same hills, rich in ore, same rivers, same 
valleys and plains, are as they have been since they 
came from the hand of the Creator ; uneducated and 
uncivilized man roamed over them for how long no 
history informs us. 

It was only under our institutions that they could 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 23 

" be developed. Their development is the result of 
the enterprise of onr people under operations of the 
Government and institutions under which we have 
lived. Even our people without these never would 
have done it. The organization of society has much 
to do with the development of the natural resources 
of any country or any land. The institut'ions of a 
people, political and moral, are the matrix in which 
the germ of their organic structure quickens into life- 
takes root and develops in form, nature and character. 
Our institutions constitute the basis, the matrix, from 
which spring all our characteristics of development 
and greatness. Look at Greece. There is the same 
fertile soil, the same blue sky, the same inlets and 
harbors, the same JEgean, the same Olympus ; there 
is the same land where Homer sujjg, where Pericles 
spoke ; it is in nature the same old Greece — but it is 
living Greece no more. (Applause.) 

Descendants of the same people inhabit the coun- 
try ; yet what is the reason of this mighty difference ? 
In the midst of present degradation we see the glori- 
ous fragments of ancient works of art — temples with 
ornaments and inscriptions that excite wonder and 
admiration — the remains of a once high order of 
civilization which have outlived the language they 
spoke — upon them all Ichabod is written — their glory 
has departed. Why is this so ? I answer, their in- 



24: ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

stitutioTis have been destroyed. These were but tlie 
fruits of their forms of goverment, the matrix from 
which their grand development sprung, and w^hei) 
once the institutions of a people have been destroyed, 
there is no earthly power that can bring back the 
Promethean spark to kindle them here again, any 
more than in that ancient land of eloquence, poetry, 
and song. (Applause.) 

The same may be said of Italy. Where is Home, 
once the mistress of the world ? There are tlie same 
seven hills now, the same soil, the same natural re- 
sources ; nature is the same, but what a ruin of 
human greatness meets the eye of the traveller 
throughout the length and breadth of that most down- 
trodden land ! Why have not the people of that 
Heaven-favored clime the spirit that animated their 
fathers ? Why this sad difference ? 

It is the destruction of her institutions that has 
caused it ; and, my countrymen, if we shall in an 
evil hour rashly pull down and destroy those institu- 
tions which the patriotic band of our fathers labored 
so long and so hard to build up, and which have done 
so much for us and the world, who can venture the 
prediction that similar results will not ensue ? Let 
us avoid it if we can. I trust the spirit is among us 
that will enable us to do it. Let us not rashly try 
the experiment, for if it fails as it did in Greece and 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 25 

Italy, and in tlie Soutli American Kepublics, and in 
every other place, wherever liberty is once destroyed, 
it may never be restored to us again. (Applause.) 

There are defects in our Government, errors in 
administration, and shortcomings of many kinds, but 
in spite of these defects and errors, Georgia has grown 
to be a great State. Let us pause here a moment. 
In 1850 there was a great crisis, but not so fearful as 
this, for of all I ever passed through, this is the most 
perilous, and requires to be met with the greatest 
calmness and deliberation. 

There were many amongst us in 1850 zealous to 
go at once out of the Union, to disrupt every tie that 
binds us together. E'ow do you believe, had that 
policy been carried out at that time, we would have 
been the same great people that we are to-day ? It 
may be that we would, but have you any assurance 
of that fact ? Would you have made the same ad- 
vancement, improvement, and progress in all that 
constitutes material wealth and prosperity that we 
have ? 

I notice in the Comptroller-General's report, that 
the taxable property of Georgia is $670,000,000 and 
upwards, an amount not far from double that it was 
in 1850. I think I may venture to say that for the 
last ten years the material wealth of the people of 
Georgia has been nearly if not quite doubled. The 
2 



26 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

same may be said of our advance in education, and 
every thing that marks our civilization. Have we 
any assurance that had we regarded the earnest but 
misguided patriotic advice, as I think, of some of 
that day, and disrupted the ties which bind us to the 
Union, we would have advanced as we have? I 
think not. Well, then, let us be careful now before 
we attempt any rash experiment of this sort. I know 
that there are friends whose patriotism I do not in- 
tend to question, who think this Union a curse, and 
that we would be better off without it. I do not so 
think ; if we can bring about a correction of these 
evils which threaten — and I am not without hope 
that this may not yet be done — this appeal to go out, 
with all the provisions for good that accompany it, 
I look upon as a great and I fear a fatal temptation. 
When I look around and see our prosperity in 
every thing, agriculture, commerce, art, science, and 
every department of education, physical and mental, 
as well as moral advancement, and our colleges, I 
think, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can 
without the loss of power, or any essential right or 
interest, remain in the Union, it is our duty to our- 
selves and to posterity to — let us not too readily 
yield to this temptation — do so. Our first parents, 
the great progenitors of the human race, were not 
without a like temptation when in the Garden of 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 27 

Eden. They were led to believe that their condition 
would be bettered — that their eyes would be opened 
■ — and that they would become as gods. They in au 
evil hour yielded — instead of becoming gods they 
only saw their own nakedness. 

I look upon this country with our institutions as 
the Eden of the world, the paradise of the universe. 
It may be that out of it we may become greater and 
more prosperous, but I am candid and sincere in 
telling you that I fear if we rashly evince passion 
and without sufficient cause shall take that step, that 
instead of becoming greater or more peaceful, pros- 
perous, and happy — instead of becoming gods, we 
will become demons, and at no distant day commence 
cutting (me another's throats. This is my apprehen- 
sion. Let ns, therefore, whatever we do, meet these 
difficulties, great as they are, like wise and sensible 
men, and consider them in the light of all the con- 
sequences which may attend our action. Let us see 
first clearly where the path of duty leads, and then 
we may not fear to tread therein. 

I come now to the main question put to me, and 
on which my counsel has been asked. That is, what 
the present Legislature should do in view of the 
dangers that threaten us, and the wrongs that have 
been done us by several of our Confederate States in 
the Union, by the acts of their legislatures nullifying 



28 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

tlie fugitive slave law, and in direct disregard of their 
constitutional obligations. What I shall say will not 
bo in the spirit of dictation. It will be simply my 
own judgment for what it is worth. It proceeds from 
a strong conviction that according to it our rights, 
interests, and honor — our present safety and future 
security can be maintained without yet looking to 
tlie last resort, the " ultima ratio regiimP That 
should not be looked to until all else fails. That 
may come. On this point I am hopeful, but not 
sanguine. But let us use every patriotic effort to 
prevent it while there is ground for hope. 

If any view that I may present, in your judgment, 
be inconsistent with the best interests of Georgia, I 
ask you, as patriots, not to regard it. After hearing 
me and others whom you have advised with, act in 
the premises according to your own conviction of 
duty as patriots. I speak now particularly to the 
members of the Legislature present. There are, as 
I have said, great dangers ahead. Great dangers 
may come from the election I have spoken of. If 
the policy of Mr. Lincoln and his Republican associ- 
ates shall be carried out, or attempted to be carried 
out, no man in Georgia will be more willing or ready 
than myself to defend our rights, interest, and honor 
at every hazard, and to the last extremity. (Ap- 
plause.) 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 29 

What is this policy ? It is in the first place to 
exclude iis by an act of Congress from the Territories 
with our slave property. He is for using the power 
of the General Government against the extension of 
our institutions. Our position on this point is and 
ought to be, at all hazards, for perfect equality be- 
tween all the States, and the citizens of all the States, 
in the Territories, under the Constitution of the 
United States. If Congress should exercise its power 
against this, then I am for standing where Georgia 
planted herself in 1850. These were plain proposi- 
tions which were then laid down in her celebrated 
platform as sufficient for the disruption of the Union 
if the occasion should ever come ; on these Georgia 
has declared that she will go out of the Union ; and 
for these she would be justified by the nations of the 
earth in so doing. 

I say the same ; I said it then ; I say it now, if 
Mr. Lincoln's policy should be carried out. I have 
told you that I do not think his bare election suffi- 
cient cause : but if his policy should be carried out 
in violation of any of the principles set forth in the 
Georgia Platform, that would be such an act of ag- 
gression which ought to be met as therein provided 
for. If his policy shall be carried out in repealing 
or modifying the Fugitive Slave law so as to weaken 
its efficacy, Georgia has declared that she will in the 



30 ECHOES EEOM THE SOUTH. 

last resort disrupt tlie ties of the Union, and I say so 
too. I stand npon the Georgia Platform, and upon 
every plank, and say if those aggressions therein 
provided for take place, I say to you and the people 
of Georgia, keep your powder dry, and let your 
assailants then have lead, if need be. (Applause.) 
I would wait for an act of aggression. This is my 
position. 

JSTow, upon another point, and that the moat dif- 
ficult and deserving your most serious consideration, 
I will speak. Tliat is the course which this State 
should pursue towards these N'orthern States, which 
by their legislative acts have attempted to nullify 
the Fugitive Slave law. I know that in some of 
these States their acts pretend to be based upon the 
principles set forth in the case of Prigg against Penn- 
sylvania ; that decision did proclaim the doctrine 
that the State officers are not bound to carry out the 
provisions of a law of Congress — that the Federal 
Government cannot impose duties upon State officials ; 
that they must execute their own laws by their own 
officers. And this may be true. But still it is the 
duty of the States to deliver fugitive slaves, as well 
as the duty of the General Government to see that 
it is done. 

Northern States, on entering into the Federal 
compact, pledged themselves to surrender such fugi- 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 3l 

lives ; and it is in disregard of their oLligations that 
they have passed huvs which even tend to hinder or 
obstruct the fulfilment of that obligation. They 
have violated their plighted faith ; what ought we 
to do in view of this? That is the question. What 
is to be done ? By the law of nations you would 
have a right to demand the carrying out of this 
article of agreement, and I do not see that it should 
be otherwise with respect to tiie States of this 
Union ; and in case it be not done, we would, by 
these principles, have the right to commit acts of 
reprisal on these faithless Governments, and seize 
upon their property, or that of their citizens, where- 
ever found. The States of this Union stand upon 
the same footing with foreign nations in this respect. 
But by the law of nations we are equally bound, 
before proceeding to violent measures, to set forth 
our grievances before the offending Government, to 
give them an opportunity to redress the wrong. Has 
our State yet done this ? I think not. 

Suppose it were Great Britain that had violated 
some compact of agreement with the General Gov- 
ernment, what would be first done? In that 
case our Minister would be directed in the first 
instance to bring the matter to the attention of that 
Government, or a Commissioner be sent to that 
country to open negotiations with her, ask for re- 



32 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

dress, and it would only be when argument and 
reason had been exhausted that we should take the 
last resort of nations. That would be the course 
towards a foreign Government, and towards a mem- 
ber of this Confederacy I would recommend the 
same course. 

Let us, therefore, not act hastily in this matter. 
Let your Committee on the State of the Republic 
make out a bill of grievances ; let it be sent by the 
Governor to those faithless States, and if reason and 
argument shall be tried in vain — all shall fail to 
induce them to return to their constitutional obliga- 
tions, I would be for retaliatory measures, such as 
the Governor has suggested to you. This mode of 
resistance to the Union is in our power. It might 
be effectual, and if in the last resort, we would be 
justified in the eyes of nations, not only in separating 
from them, but by using force. 

[Some one said the argument was already 
exhausted.] 

Mr. Stephens continued — Some friend says that 
the argument is already exhausted. IsTo, my friend, 
it is not. You have never called the attention of the 
Legislatures of those States to this subject, that I am 
aware of. ISTothing has ever been done before this 
year. The attention of our own people has been 
called to this subject lately. 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 33 

!N"ow, then, my recommendation to you would bo 
this : In view of all these questions of difficulty, let 
a convention of the people of Georgia be called, to 
which they may be all referred. Let the sovereignty 
of the people speak. Some think that the election 
of Mr. Lincoln is cause sufficient to dissolve the 
Union. Some think those other grievances are suffi- 
cient to dissolve the same, and that the Legislature 
has the power thus to act, and ought thus to act. I 
have no hesitancy in saying that the Legislature is 
not the proper body to sever our Federal relations, if 
that necessity should arise. An honorable and dis- 
tinguished gentleman, the other night, (]\ir. T. R. R. 
Cobb,) advised you to take this course — not to wait 
to hear from the cross-roads and groceries. I say to 
you, you have uo power so to act. You must refer 
this question to the people and you must wait to hear 
from the men at the cross-roads and even the gro- 
ceries; for the people in this country, whether at 
the cross-roads or the groceries, whether in cottages 
or palaces, are all equal, and they are the sovereigns 
in this country. Sovereignty is not in the Legisla- 
ture. We, the people, are the sovereigns. I am 
one of them and have a right to be heard, and so has 
any other citizen of the State. You legislators, I 
speak it respectfully, are but our servants. You 
are the servants of the people, and not their 



34 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

masters. Power resides with the people in this 
country. 

The great difference between our country and all 
others, such as France and England and Ireland, is, 
that here there is popular sovereignty, while there 
sovereignty is exercised by kings and favored classes. 
This principle of popular sovereignty, however much 
derided lately, is the foundation of our institutions. 
Constitutions are but the channels through which the 
popular will may be expressed. Our Constitution 
came from the people. They made it, and they alone 
can rightfully unmake it. 

Mr. Toombs— I am afraid of conventions. 

Mr. Stephens — I am not afraid of any conven- 
tion legally chosen by the people. I know no way 
to decide great questions affecting fundamental laws 
except by representatives of the people. The Con- 
stitution of the United States was made by the rep- 
resentatives of the people. The Constitution of the 
State of Georgia was made by representatives of the 
people chosen at the ballot-box. But do not let the 
question which comes before the pei^ple be put to 
them in the language of my honorable friend who 
addressed you last night. Will you submit to aboli- 
tion rule or resist ? 

Mr. Toombs — I do not wish the people to be 
cheated. 



SPEECH OF nOK. A. H. STEPHENS. 35 

Mr. Stephens — Now, my friends, how are we 
going to cheat the people bj calling on them to elect 
delegates to a convention to decide all these ques- 
tions without any dictation or direction? Who pro- 
poses to cheat the people by letting them speak their 
own untrammelled views in the choice of their ablest 
and best men, to determine upon all these matters, 
involving their peace. 

I think the proposition of my honorable friend 
had a considerable smack of unfairness, not to say 
cheat. He wished to have no convention, but for the 
Legislature to submit their vote to the people — sub- 
mission to abolition rule or resistance ? Now, who 
in Georgia would vote "submission to abolition 
rule?" (Laughter.) 

Is putting such a question to the people to vote 
on, a fair way of getting an expression of the popular 
will on all these questions ? I think not. Now, 
who in Georgia is going to submit to abolition rule ? 

Mr. Toombs — The convention will. 

Mr. Stephens— No, my friend, Georgia will 
never do it. The convention will never secede from 
the Georgia Platform. Under that there can be no 
abolition rule under the General Government. I 
am not afraid to trust the people in convention upon 
this and all questions. Besides, the Legislature were 
not elected for such a purpose. They came here to 



86 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

do their duty as legislators. They have sworn to 
support the Constitution of the United States. They 
did not come here to disrupt this Government. I 
am, therefore, for submitting all these questions to a 
convention of the people. Submit this question to 
the people, whether they would submit to abolition 
rule or resist, and then let the Legislature act upon 
that vote ! Such a course would be an insult to the 
people. They would have to eat their platform, 
ignore their past history, blot out their records, and 
take steps backwards, if they should do this. I have 
never eaten my record or words, and never will. 

But how will it be under this arrangement if they 
should vote to resist, and the Legislature should re- 
assemble with this vote as their instruction ? Can 
any man tell me what sort of resistance will be 
meant? One man would say secede; another pass 
retaliatory measures ; these are measures of resistance 
against wrong — legitimate and right — and there 
would be as many different ideas as there are mem- 
bers on this floor. Resistance don't mean secession 
—that in no proper sense of the term is resistance. 
Believing that the times require action, I am for 
presenting the question f\iirly to the people, for calling 
together an untrammelled convention, and present- 
ing all the questions to them whether they will go 
out of the Union, or what course of resistance in the 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 37 

Union thej may think best, and then let the Legis- 
lature act, when the people in their majesty are 
heard, and I tell you now, whatever that convention 
does, I hope and trust our people will abide by. 
I advise the calling of a convention with the earnest 
desire to preserve the peace and harmony of the 
State. I should dislike above all things to see 
violent measures adopted, or a disposition to take the 
sword in hand, by individuals, without the authority 
of law. 

My honorable friend said last uight, " I ask you 
to give me the sword, for if you do not give it to me, 
as God lives, I will take it myself." 

Mr. Toombs — I will. (Applause on the other 
side.) 

Mr. Stephens — I have no doubt that my honor- 
able friend feels as he says. It is only his excessive 
ardor that makes him use such an expression ; but 
this will pass off with the excitement of the hour. 
When the people in their majesty shall speak, I 
have no doubt that he will bow to their will, what- 
ever it may be, upon the " sober second thought." 
(Applause.) 

Should Georgia determine to go out of the Union, 
I speak for one, though my views might not agree 
with them, whatever the result may be, I shall bow 
to the will of her people. Their cause is my cause, 



38 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

and tlieir destiny is my destiny ; and I trust this will 
be the ultimate course of all. The greatest curse 
that can befall a free people is civil war. 

But, as I said, let us call a convention of the 
people ; let all these matters be submitted to it, and 
when the will of the majority of the people has thus 
been expressed, the whole State will present one 
unanimous voice in favor of whatever may be de- 
manded ; for I believe in the power of the people to 
govern themselves when wisdom prevails and passion 
is silent. 

Look at what has already been done by them for 
their advancement in all that ennobles man. There 
is nothing like it in the history of the world. Look 
abroad, from one extent of the country to the other, 
contemplate oar greatness. We are now among the 
first nations of the earth. Shall it be said, then, that 
our institutions, founded upon principles of self- 
government, are a failure ? 

Thus far it is a noble example, worthy of imita- 
tion. The gentleman, Mr. Cobb, the other night 
said it had proven a failure. A failure in what ? In 
growth? Look at our expanse in national power. 
Look at our population and increase in all that 
makes a people great. A failure? Why are we the 
admiration of the civilized world, and present the 
brightest hopes of mankind. 



SPEECH OF nON. A. H. STEPHENS. 39 

Some of our public men have failed in tlieir aspi- 
rations; that is true, and from that comes a great 
part of our troubles. (Prolonged applause.) 

No, there is no failure of this Government yet. 
We have made great advancement under the Con- 
stitution, and I cannot but hope that we shall 
advance higher yet. Let us be true to our cause. 

Xow, when this convention assembles, if it shall 
be called, as I hope it may, I would say in my judg- 
ment, without dictation, for I am conferring with 
you freely and frankly, aud it is thus that I give my 
-views, I should take into consideration all those 
questions which distract the public mind ; should 
view all the grounds of secession so far as the elec- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln is concerned, and I have no 
doubt they would say that the constitutional election 
of no man is a sufficient cause to break up the 
LTnion, but that the State should wait until he at 
least does some unconstitutional act. 

Mr. Toombs — Commit some overt act. 

Mr. Stephens — ISTo, I did not say that. The 
word overt is a sort of technical term connected with 
treason, which has come to us from the mother coun- 
try, and it means an open act of rebellion. I do not 
see how Mr. Lincoln can do this unless he should 
levy war upon us. I do not, therefore, use the word 
overt. I do not intend to wait for that. But I use 



40 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

the word unconstitutional act, which our people 
understand much better, and which expresses just 
what I mean. But as long as he conforms to the 
Constitution he should be left to exercise the duties 
of his office. 

In giving this advice I am but sustaining the 
Constitution of mj country, and I do not thereby be- 
come a Lincoln aid man either, (applause,) but a 
Constitutional aid man. But this matter the con- 
vention can determine. 

As to the other matter, I think we have a right 
to pass retaliatory measures, provided they be in 
accordance with the Constitution of the United 
States, and I think they can be made such. But 
whether it would be wise for this Legislature to do 
this now is the question. To the convention, in my 
judgment, this matter ought to be referred. Before 
we commit reprisals on 'New England we should ex- 
haust every means of bringing about a peaceful solu- 
tion of the question. 

Thus did Gen. Jackson in the case of the French. 
He did not recommend reprisals until he had treated 
with France, and got her to promise to make indem- 
nification, and it was only on her refusal to pay the 
money which she had promised, that he recom- 
mended reprisals. It was after negotiation had 
failed. I do think, therefore, that it would be best, 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 41 

before 2:0! 112: to extreme measures with our confeder- 
ate States, to make presentation of our demands, to 
appeal to their reason and judgment to give us our 
rights. Then, if reason should not triumph, it will 
be time enough to commit reprisals, and we should 
be justified in the eyes of a civilized world. At 
least let the States know what your grievances are, 
and if they refuse, as I said, to give us our rights 
under the Constitution of our country, I should be 
willing, as a last resort, to sever the ties of this 
Union. (Applause.) 

My own opinion is, that if this course be pursued, 
and they are informed of the consequences of refusal, 
these States will secede ; but if they should not, then 
let the consequences be with them, and let the 
responsibility of the consequences rest upon them. 
Another thing I would have that convention to do. 
Reaffirm the Georgia Platform with an additional 
plank in it. Let that plank be the fulfilment of 
the obligation on the part of those States to repeal 
these obnoxious laws as a condition of our remain- 
ing in the Union. Give them time to consider it, 
and I would ask all States south to do the same 
thing. 

I am for exhausting all that patriotism can de- 
mand before taking the last step. I would invite, 
therefore. South Carolina to a conference. I would 



43 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

ask tlie same of all the other Southern States, 
so that if the evil has got beyond onr control, 
which God, in his mercy, grant may not be the case, 
let lis not be divided among ourselves — (cheers,) — 
but, if possible, secure the united cooperation of all 
the Southern States ; and then, in the face of the 
civilized world, we may justify our action; and, 
with the wrong all on the other side, we can appeal 
to the God of battles to aid us in our cause. (Loud 
applause.) But let us not do anything in which any 
portion of our people may charge us %\;ith rash or 
hasty action. It is certainly a matter of great im^-i 
portance to tear this Government asnnder. You 
were not sent here for that purpose. I would wish 
the whole South to be united if this is to be done ; 
and I believe if we pursue the policy which I have 
indicated, this can be effected. 

In this way our sister Southern States can be 
induced to act v/ith us, and I have but little doubt 
that the States of New York and Pennsylvania and 
Ohio, and the other Western States, will compel 
their Legislatures to recede from their hostile 
attitude if the others do not. Then with these we 
would go on without ISTew England if she chose to 
stay out. 

A voice in the assembly — We will kick them out. 

Mr. Stephens — I would not kick them out. But 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 43 

if they chose to stay out they might. I think, more- 
over, that these Northern States being princix^ally 
engaged in manufactures, would find that they liad 
a? much interest in the Union under the Constitu- 
tion as we, and that they would return to their con- 
stitutional duty — this would be my hope. If they 
should not, and if the Middle States and Western 
States do not join us, we should at least have an 
undivided South. I am, as you clearly perceive, for 
maintaining the Union as it is, if possible. I will 
exhaust every means thus to maintain it with an 
equality in it. My principles are these : 

First, the maintenance of the honor, the rights, 
the equality, the security, and the glory of my native 
State in the Union ; but if these cannot be main- 
tained in the Union, then I am for their mainte- 
nance, at all hazards, out of it. IText to the honor 
and glory of Georgia, the land of my birth, I hold 
the honor and glory of our common country. In 
Savannah I was made to say by the reporters, who 
very often make me say things which I never did, 
that I was first for the glory of the whole country, 
and next for that of Georgia. 

I said the exact reverse of this. I am proud of 
her history, of her present standing. I am proud 
even of her motto, which I would have duly respected 
at the present time by all her sons — Wisdom, Jus- 



44 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

tice, and Moderation. I would have her rights and 
that of the Southern States maintained now upon 
these principles. Her position now is just what it 
was in 1850, with respect to the Southern States. 
Her platform then has been adopted by most, if not 
all, the other Southern States. E'ow I would add 
but one additional plank to that platform, which I 
have stated, and one which time has shown to be 
necessary. 

If all this fails, we shall at least have the satisfac- 
tion of knowing that we have done our duty and all 
that patriotism could require. 

Mr. Stephens continued for some time on other 
matters, which are omitted, and then took his seat 
amidst great applause. 



DECLARATION OF CArSES. 45 



DEOLAEATION OF CAUSES 

WHICn INDUCED THE SECESSION OF SOUTH CAEOLINA. 

The people of tlie State of South Carolina 
in Convention assembled, on the 2d day of April, 
A. D. 1852, declared that the frequent violations of 
the Constitution of the United States bj the Federal 
Government, and its encroachments upon the 
reserved rights of the States, fully justified this 
State in their withdrawal from the Federal Union ; 
but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the 
other Slaveholding States, she forbore at that time 
to exercise this right. Since that time these 
encroachments have continued to increase, and 
further forbearance ceases to be a virtue. 

And now the State of South Carolina, having 
resumed her separate and equal place among 
nations, deems it due to herself, to the remaining 
United States of America, and to the nations of the 
world, that she should declare the immediate causes 
which have led to this act. 



46 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

In the year 1Y65, that portion of the British 
Empire embracing Great Britain undertook to make 
laws for the Government of that portion composed 
of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for 
the right of self-government ensued, v^hich resulted, 
on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the 
Colonies, " that they are, and of right ought to be, 
FKEE AND INDEPENDENT STATES ; and that, as free 
and independent States, they have full power to levy 
war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish 
commerce, and to do all other acts and things which 
independent States may of right do." 

They further solemnly declared that whenever 
any " form of government becomes destructive of the 
ends for which it was established, it is the right of 
the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a 
new government." Deeming the Government of 
Great Britain to have become destructive of these 
ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved 
from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that 
all political connection between them and the State 
of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally 
dissolved." 

In pursuance of this Declaration of Independ- 
ence, each of the thirteen States proceeded to 
exercise its separate sovereignty ; adopted for itself 
a Constitution, and appointed officers for the 



DECLAKATION OF CAUSES. 47 

adiinnistration of government in all its departments 
— Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For pur- 
poses of defence they united their arms and their 
counsels ; and, in 1778, they entered into a League 
known as the Articles of Confederation, whereby 
thev aofreed to intrust the administration of their 
external relations to a common agent, known as the 
Congress of the United States, expressly declaring, 
in the first article, " that each State retains its sove- 
reignty, freedom and independence, and every power, 
inrisdiction and right which is not, by this Confede- 
ration, expressly delegated to the United States in 
Congress assembled." 

Under this Confederation the War of the Revolu- 
tion was carried on ; and on tlie 3d of September, 
1783, the contest ended, and a definite Treaty was 
signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged 
the Independence of the Colonies in the following 
terms : 

" Article 1. His Britannic Majesty acknowl- 
edges the said United States, viz. ; I^ew Hampshire, 
Massachusetts Bay, Ehode Island and Providence 
Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free, 
SOVEREIGN, AND INDEPENDENT STATES ; that he treats 
with them as such ; and, for himself, his heirs and 



48 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, 
propriety, and territorial rights of the same and 
every part thereof." 

Thus were established the two great principles 
asserted by the Colonies, namely, the right of a State 
to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish 
a Government when it becomes destructive of the 
ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent 
with the establishment of these principles, was the 
fact that each Colony became and was recognized 
by the mother country as a feee, sovereign and 

INDEPENDENT STATE. 

In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States 
to revise the articles of Confederation ; and on 17th 
September, 1787, these Deputies recommended, for 
the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union, 
known as the Constitution of the United States. 

The parties to whom this constitution was 
submitted were the several sovereign States ; they 
were to agree or disagree, and when nine of them 
agreed, the compact was to take effect among those 
concurring ; and the General Government, as the 
common agent, was then to be invested with their 
authority. 

If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred, 
the other four would have remained as they then 
were — separate, sovereign States, independent of 



DECLARATION OF CAUSES. 49 

any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact, 
two of the States did not accede to the Constitution 
until long after it had gone into operation among 
the other eleven ; and during that interval, they 
each exercised the functions of an independent 
nation. 

By this Constitution, certain duties were imposed 
upon the several States, and the exercise of certain 
of their powers was restrained, which necessarily 
impelled their continued existence as sovereign 
states. But, to remove all doubt, an amendment was 
added, which declared that the powers not delegated 
to the United States by the Constitution, nor pro- 
hibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States 
respectively, or to the people. On the 23d May, 
1788, South Carolina, by a Convention of her 
people, passed an ordinance assenting to this Consti- 
tution, and afterwards altered her own Constitution 
to conform herself to the obligation she had under- 
taken. 

Til us was established, by compact between the 
States, a Government with defined objects and 
powers, limited to the express words of the grant. 
This limitation left the whole remaining mass of 
power subject to the clause reserving it to the States 
or the people, and rendered unnecessary any specifi- 
cation of reserved rights. We hold that the 
3 



50 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

Government thus established is subject to the two 
great principles asserted in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ; and we hold further that the mode of its 
formation subjects it to a third fundamental prin- 
ciple, namely, the law of compact. We maintain 
that in every compact between two or more parties, 
the obligation is mutual ; that the failure of one of 
the contracting parties to perform a material part of 
the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the 
other ; and that where no arbiter is provided, each 
party is remitted to his own judgment to determine 
the fact of failure, with all its consequences. 

In the present case, that fact is established with 
certainty. "We assert that fourteen of the States 
have deliberately refused for years past to fuiill their 
constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own 
statutes for the proof. 

The Constitution of the United States, in its 
fourth Article, provides as follows ; 

" 1^0 person held to service or labor in one State 
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such 
service or labor may be due." 

This stipulation was so material to the compact 
that without it that compact would not have been 



DECLARATION OF CAUSPZS. 51 

made. The greater number of the contracting 
parties held skives, and they had previously evinced 
their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by 
making it a condition in the Ordinance for the 
government of the territory ceded by Virginia, 
which obligations, and the laws of the General 
Government, have ceased to effect the objects of the 
Constitution. The States of Maine, JSTew Hamp- 
shire, Yermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ehode 
Island, JSTew York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, have enacted laws 
w^hich either nullify the acts of Congress, or render 
useless any attempt to execute them. In many of 
these States the fugitive is discharged from the 
service of labor claimed, and in none of them has the 
State Government complied with the stipulation 
made in the Constitution. The State of JSTew 
Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in conformity 
with her constitutional obligation ; but the current 
of Anti-Slavery feeling has led her more recently to 
enact laws which render inoperative the remedies 
provided by her own laws and by the Laws of Con- 
gress. In the State of New York even the right of 
transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals ; 
and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to 
surrender to justice fugitives charged wdth murder, 
and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of 



52 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

Yirginia. Thus the constitutional compact has been 
deliberately broken and disregarded by the non- 
slaveholding States ; and the consequence follows 
that South Carolina is released from her obligation. 

The ends for which this Constitution was framed 
are declared by itself to be " to form a more perfect 
union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquil- 
lity, provide for the common defence, promote the 
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty 
to ourselves and our posterity." 

These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a 
Federal Government, in which each State was recog- 
nized as an equal, and had separate control over its 
own institutions. The right of property in slaves 
was recognized by giving to free persons distinct 
political rights ; by giving them the right to repre- 
sent, and burdening them with direct taxes for, 
three-fifths of their slaves ; by authorizing the 
importation of slaves for twenty years ; and by 
stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor. 

We affirm that these ends for which this Govern- 
ment was instituted have been defeated, and the 
Government itself has been destructive of them by 
the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those 
States have assumed the right of deciding upon the 
propriety of our domestic institutions ; and have 
denied the rights of property established in fifteen of 



DECLARATION OF CAUSES. 53 

the States and recognized by the Constitution ; tliey 
have denounced as sinful the institution of Shivery; 
they have permitted the open establishment among 
them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb 
the peace of and eloin tlie property of the citizens of 
other States. They have encouraged and assisted 
thousands of our slaves to leave their homes ; and 
those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, 
books, and pictures, to servile insurrection. 

For twenty-five years this agitation has been 
steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its 
aid the power of the common Government. Observ- 
ing i\\Q forms of the Constitution, a sectional party 
has found within that article establishing the Execu- 
tive Department, the means of subverting the 
Constitution itself. A geograpliical line has been 
drawn across the Union, and all the States north of 
that line have united in the election of a man to the 
high office of President of the United States whose 
opinions and purposes are hostile to Slavery. He is 
to be intrusted with the administration of the com- 
mon Government, because he has declared that that 
" Government cannot endure permanently half slave, 
half free," and that the public mind must rest in 
the belief that Slavery is in the course of ultimate 
extinction. 

This sectional combination for the subversion of 



64: ECHOES FROM THE SOTH'H. 

the Constitution has been aided, in some of the 
States, by elevating to citizenship persons who, by 
the supreme law of the land, are incapable of beconi- 
ino^ citizens ; and their votes have been used to 
inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and 
destructive of its peace and safety. 

On the 4th of March next this party will take 
possession of the Government. It has announced 
that the South shall be excluded from the common 
territory, that the Judicial tribunal shall be made 
sectional, and that a war must be waged against 
Slavery until it shall cease throughout the United 
States. 

The guarantees of the Constitution will then no 
longer exist ; the equal rights of the States will be 
lost. The Slaveholding States will no longer have 
the power of self-government, or self-protection, 
and the Federal Government will have become their 
enemy. 

Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the 
irritation ; and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, 
by the fact that the public opinion at the North has 
invested a great political error with the sanctions of 
a more erroneous religious belief. 

We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by 
our Delegates in Convention assembled, appealing 
to the Supreme Judge of the world lor the rectitude 



DECLAEATION OF CAUSES. 65 

of OTir intentions, have solemnly declared that the 
Union heretofore existing between this State and the 
other States of North America is dissolved, and that 
the State of South Carolina has resumed her position 
among the nations of the world, as a separate and 
independent state, with full power to levy war, con- 
clude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, 
and to do all other acts and things which independ- 
ent States may of right do. 



66 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 



OEDINANCES OF SECESSION. 



SOUTH CAKOLINA. 

An Ordmance to Dissolve the Union hetween the 
State of South Carolina and other States united 
with her %inder the comjyaot entitled the Gonstittt- 
tion of the United States of America : 

We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in 
Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it 
is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance 
adopted by ns in Convention, on the 23d day of 
May, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the 
Constitution of the United States of America was 
ratified, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the 
General Assembly of this State ratifying the amend- 
s. ments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, 
and that the Union now subsisting between South 
Carolina and other States, under the name of the 
United States of America, is hereby dissolved. 

The ordinance was taken up and passed by a 
unanimous vote of 169 members, at a quarter past 
one o'clock, December 2, 1860. 



OEDINANCES OF SECESSION, 57 



LOUISIANA. 

A?i Ordinance to dissohte the Union hetween the 
State of Louisiana and the other Statts "xnited with 
her^ under the comjpaci entitled the Conatitution 
of the United States of Amei'ica : 

We, tlie people of the State of Louisiana, in Con- 
vention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is 
hereby declared and ordained that the ordinance 
passed by the State of 22d Il^ovember, 1807, whereby 
the Constitution of the United States of America 
and the amendments of said Constitution were 
adopted, and all the laws and ordinances by which 
Louisiana became a member of the Federal Union, 
be, and the same are hereby repealed and abrogated, 
and the Union now subsistins; between Louisiana 
and the other States, under the name of the United 
States of America, is hereby dissolved. 

We further declare and ordain, that the State of 
Louisiana hereby resumes the rights and powers 
heretofore delegated to the Government of the 
United States of America, and its citizens are 
absolved from allegiance to the said Government, 
and she is in full possession of all the rights and 
sovereignty that appertain to a free and independent 
State. 

3* 



68 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

We further declare and ordain, tliat all rights 
acquired and vested under the Constitution of the 
United States, or any act of Congress, or treaty, or 
under laws of this State not incompatible with this 
ordinance shall remain in force, and have the same 
effect as though this ordinance had not passed. 

A resolution was reported to the Convention that 
the following be added to the ordinance: 

We, the people of Louisiana, recognize the right 
of free navigation of the Mississippi River and 
tributaries by all friendly States bordering thereon, 
we also recognize tlie riglits of the ingress and egress 
of the mouths of the Mississippi by all friendly 
States and Powers, and hereby declare our willing- 
ness to enter into stipulations to guarantee the 
exercise of those rights. 



ALABAMA. 



An Ordinance to dissolve the Union hetween the 
State of Alalama Ojnd other States, united under 
the compact and style of the United States of 
America, 

Whereas, The election of Abraham Lincoln and 
Hannibal Hamlin to the offices of President and 
Yice President of the United States of America, by 
a sectional party, avowedly hostile to the domestic 



ORDINANCES OF SECESSION. 59 

institutions, and peace and security of the people of 
the State of Alabama, following npon the heels of 
many and dangerous infractions of the Constitution 
of the United States, by many of the States and 
people of the Northern section, is a political wrong 
of so insulting and menacing a character, as to justify 
the people of the State of Alabama in the adoption 
of prompt and decided measures for their future 
peace and prosperity. 

Therefore, be it declared and ordained, by the 
people of the State of Alabama, in Convention as- 
sembled, that the State of Alabama now withdraws 
from the Union, known as the United States of 
America, and henceforth ceases to be one of the 
said United States, and is, and of right ought to be a 
sovereign independent State. 

Sec. 2. And be it further declared and ordained 
by the people of the State of Alabama in Convention 
assembled, that all powers over the territories of 
said State, and over the people thereof, heretofore 
delegated to the Government of the United States 
of America, be, and they are hereby, withdrawn 
from the said Government, and are hereby 
resumed and vested in the people of the State of 
Alabama. 

And as it is the desire and purpose of the people 
of Alabama, to meet the slaveholding States of the 



60 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

South who approve of such a purpose, in order to 
frame a revisional as a permanent Government, 
upon the principles of the Government of the United 
States, be it also resolved hj the people of Alabama, 
in Convention assembled, that the people of the 
States of Delware, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky 
and Missouri, be and they are hereby invited to 
meet the people of the State of Alabama, by their 
delegates, in convention, on the 4:th day of February 
next, in Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, for 
the purpose of consultation with each other, as to 
the most effectual mode of securing concerted, 
harmonious action in whatever measures may be 
deemed most desirable for the common peace and 
security. 

And he it further enacted^ That the President of 
this Convention be and he is hereby instructed to 
transmit forthwith a copy of the foregoing preamble, 
ordinance and resolutions to the Governors of the 
several States named in the said resolution. 

Done by the people of Alabama, in Convention 
,f assembled, at Montgomery, this 11th day of January, 
1861. 

The preamble, ordinance and resolutions were 
adopted by Ayes 61, l^ays 39. 



ORDINAl^CES OF SECESSION. 61 



ARKANSAS. 



An 0)'dinance to dissolve the Union now existing 
hetween the State of Arkansas and the other States 
united with her under the compact entitled '• The 
Constitution of the United States of America.'''^ 

Whereas, In addition to the well-founded cause 
of complaint set forth by this Convention in resolu- 
tions adopted on the 11th March, A. D. 1861, 
against the sectional party now in power at Wash- 
ington City, headed by Abraham Lincoln, he has, in 
the face of the resolutions passed by this Convention, 
pledging the State of Arkansas to resist to the last 
extremity any attempt on the part of such power to 
coerce any State that seceded from the old Union, 
proclaimed to the world that war should be waged 
against such States, until they should be compelled 
• to submit to their rule, and large forces to accom- 
plish this have by this same power been called out, 
and are now being marshalled to carry out this 
Inhuman design, and longer to submit to such rule 
or remain in the old Union of the United States 
would be disgraceful and ruinous to the State of 
Arkansas : 

Therefore, we, the people of the State of 
Arkansas, in Convention assembled, do hereby 



62 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and 
ordained, that the " ordinance and acceptance of 
compact," passed and approved by the General 
Assembly of the State of Arkansas on the 18th day 
of October, A. D. 1836, whereby it was by said 
General Assembly ordained that, by virtue of the 
authority invested in said General Assembly, by the 
provisions of the ordinance adopted by the Conven- 
tion of delegates assembled at Little Eock for the 
purpose of forming a Constitution and system of 
Government for said State, the propositions set forth 
in " an act supplementary to an act entitled an act 
for the admission of the State of Arkansas into the 
Union, and to provide for the due execution of the 
laws of the United States within the same, and for 
other purposes, were freely accepted, ratified, and 
irrevocably confirmed articles of compact and union 
between the State of Arkansas and the United 
States," and all other laws, and every other law and 
ordinance, whereby the State of Arkansas became a 
member of the Federal Union, be, and the same are 
hereby in all respects, and for every purpose here- 
with consistent, repealed, abrogated, and fully set 
aside ; and the union now subsisting between the 
State of Arkansas and the other States under the 
name of the United States of America, is hereby 
forever dissolved. 



ORDrNANCES OF SECESSION. 63 

And we do further hereby declare and ordain 
that the State of Arkansas hereby resumes to herself 
all rights and powers heretofore delegated to the 
Government of tlie United States of America —that 
her citizens are absolved from all alleo;iance to said 
Government of the United States, and that ehe is 
in full possession and exercise of all the rights and 
sovereignty which appertain to a free and independ- 
ent State. 

We do further ordain and declare that all rights 
acquired and vested under the Constitution of the 
United States of America, or of any act or acts of 
Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, 
and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall 
remain in full force and effect, in no wise altered or 
impaired, and have the same effect as if this ordi- 
nance had not been passed. 

Adopted and passed in open Convention on the 
6th day of May, Anno Domini 1861. 

Elias C. Boudinot, 
Secretary of the Arhansas State Convention, 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



We, the people of the State of E'orth Carolina, 
in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and 
it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordi- 



64 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

nance adopted by the State of N'orth Carolina, in 
the convention of 1789, whereby the Constitution of 
the United States was ratified and adopted, and also 
all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly, 
ratifying and adopting amendments to the said Con- 
stitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded, and 
abrogated. 

We do further declare and ordain that the Union 
now subsisting between the State of ]^orth Carolina 
and the other States, under the title of the United 
States of America, is hereby dissolved, and that the 
State of J^orth Carolina is in the full possession and 
exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which 
belong and appertain to a free and independent 
State. 

Done at Raleigh, 20th day of May, in the year 
of our Lord 1861. 

The following ordinance was also passed : 

We, the people ot l!^orth Carolina, in Conven- 
tion assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is 
hereby declared and ordained, that the State of 
l^orth Carolina does hereby assent to and ratify the 
Constitution for the Provisional Government of the 
Confederate States of America, adopted at Mont- 
gomery, in the State of Alabama, on the 8th of 
February, 1861, by the Convention of Delegates 
from the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 



OEDINAi^CES OF SECESSION. 65 

Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and that North 
Carolina will enter into the federal association of 
States upon the terms therein proposed, when 
admitted by the Congress or any competent authority 
of the Confederate States. 

Done at Ealeigh, 20th day of May, in the year 
of our Lord 1861. 



VIRGINIA. 



The following is the " ordinance to repeal the 
ratification of the Constitution of the United States 
of America, by the State of Virginia, and to resume 
all the rights and powers granted under said Con- 
stitution," which passed the State Convention on 
the 17th of April, 1861: 

The people of Virginia, in the ratification of the 
Constitution of the United States of America, 
adopted by them in Convention, on the 25th day of 
June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven 
hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the 
powers granted under the said Constitution were 
derived from the people of the United States, and 
miarht be resumed whensoever the same should be 
perverted to their injury and oppression, and the 
Federal Government having perverted said powers, 
not only to the injury of the people of Yirginia, but 



6Q ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

to the oppression of the Southern slaveholding 
States ; 

l^ow, therefore, we, the people of Virginia, do 
declare and ordain, that the ordinance adopted by 
the people of this State in convention on the twenty- 
fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby 
the Constitution of the United States of America 
was ratified, and all acts of the General Assembly 
of this State ratifying or adopting amendments to 
said Constitution, are hereby repealed and abrogated; 
that the Union between the State of Virginia and 
the other States under the Constitution aforesaid is 
hereby dissolved, and that the State of Virginia is 
in the full possession and exercise of all the rights 
of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free 
and independent State. And they do further 
declare that said Constitution of the United States of 
America is no longer binding on any of the citizens 
of this State. 

This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of 
this day, when ratified by a majority of the votes of 
the people of this State, cast at a poll to be taken 
thereon, on the fourth Thursday in May next, in 
pursuance of a schedule hereafter to be enacted. 

Done in convention in the city of Eichmond, on 
the seventeenth day of April", in the year of our 



ORDINANCES OF SECESSION. 67 

Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and 
in the eighty -fifth year of the Commonwealth of 
Virginia. Jno. L. Eubank, 

Secretary of Convention. 



TEXAS. 

An Ordinance to dissolve the Union hetween the 
State of Texas and the other States under the 
comjpact styled' the Constitution of the United 
States of America. 

Sec. 1. Whereas, the Federal Government has 
failed to accomplish the purposes of the compact of 
Union between these States, in giving protection 
either to the persons of our people upon an exposed 
frontier, or to the property of our citizens; and 
whereas, the action of the Northern States is viola- 
tive of the compact between the States and the 
guarantees of the Constitution ; and, whereas, the 
recent developments in federal affairs make it 
evident that the power of the Federal Government 
is sought to be made a weapon with which to strike 
down the interests and property of the people of 
Texas and her sister slaveholding States, instead of 
permitting it to be, as was intended — our shield 
against outrage and aggression — therefore, "We, 
the people of the State of Texas, by delegates in the 



68 ECHOES EKOM THE SOUTH. 

Convention assembled, do declare and ordain that 
the ordinance adopted by our Convention of dele- 
gates on the fourth (4th) day of July, A. D. 1845, and 
afterwards ratified by us, under which the Republic 
of Texas was admitted into the Union with other 
States, and became a party to the compact styled 
' The Constitution of the United States of America,' 
be and is hereby repealed and annulled." 

That all the powers which, by the said compact, 
were delegated by Texas to the Federal Government 
are resumed. That Texas is of right absolved from 
all restraints and obligations incurred by said com- 
pact, and is a separate sovereign State, and that her 
citizens and people are absolved from all allegiance 
to the United States or the Government thereof. 

Sec. 2. The ordinance shall be submitted to the 
people of Texas for their ratification or rejection, 
by the qualified voters, on the 23d day of February, 
1861 ; and unless rejected by a majority of the votes 
cast, shall take efiect and be in force on and after 
the 2d day of March, A. D. 1861. Provided, that 
in the representative district of El Paso said 
election may be held on the 18th day of February, 
1861. 

Done by the people of the State of Texas, in 
convention assembled, at Austin, the 1st day of 
February, A. D. 1861. 



ORDINAlfCES OF SECESSION. C9 

MISSISSIPPI. 

ADOPTED JAXUART 9tH, 18G1. 

The people of Mississippi, in convention assem 
bled, do ordain and declare, and it is hereby ordained 
and declared as follows, to wit.: 

That all the laws and ordinances by which the 
said State of Mississippi became a member of the 
federal of the United States of America, be, and the 
same are hereby repealed ; and that all obligations 
on the part of said State, or the people thereof, to 
observe the same be withdrawn ; and that the said 
State shall hereby resume the rights, functions, and 
powers, which, by any of said laws and ordinances, 
where conveyed to the Government of the said 
United States, and is dissolved from all the obliga- 
tions, restraints, and duties incurred to the said 
Federal Union, and shall henceforth be a free, 
sovereign and independent State. 



FLORIDA. 

ADOPTED JANUAET IItH, 18G1. 



Whereas^ All hope of preserving the Union upon 
terms consistent with the safety and honor of the 
slaveholding States, has been finally dissipated by 



70 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

the recent indications of the strength of the anti- 
slavery sentiment of the free States ; therefore, 

Be it resolved ly the jpeojple of Florida^ in Con- 
vention assembled. That it is undoubtedly the right 
of the several States of the Union, at such times, and 
for such cause as in the opinion of the people of such 
State, acting in their sovereign capacity, may be just 
and proper ; and, in the opinion of this Convention, 
the existing causes are such as to compel Florida to 
proceed to exercise that right. 

"We, the people of the State of Florida, in Con- 
vention assembled, do solemnly ordain, publish and 
declare that the State of Florida hereby withdraws 
herself from the Confederacy of States existing under 
the name of the United States of America, and from 
the existing Government of the said States ; and 
that all political connection between her and the 
Government of the said States ought to be, and the 
same is hereby totally annulled, and said Union of 
States dissolved ; and the State of Florida is hereby 
declared a sovereign and independent nation ; and 
that all ordinances heretofore adopted, in so far as 
they create or recognize said Union, are rescinded ; 
and all laws, or parts of laws, in force in this State, 
in so far as they recognize or assent to said Union, 
be and they are hereby repealed. 



OKDmANCES OF SECESSION. 71 



GEORGIA. 

,A?i Ordinance to dissolve the Union hetween the 
State of Geonjia and other States vnited with 
her tinder ths compact of Government entitled the 
Constitutio7i of the United States. 

AYe, the people of the State of Georgia, in Con- 
vention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is 
hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinances 
adopted by the people of the State of Georgia in 
convention in 1788, whereby the Constitution of 
the United States was assented to, ratified and 
adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the 
General Assembly ratifying and adopting amend- 
ments to the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, 
rescinded and abrogated. 

And we do further declare and ordain that the 
Union now subsisting between the State of Georgia 
and other States, under the name of tlie United 
States is hereby dissolved, and that the State of 
Georgia is in full possession and exercise of all 
those rights of sovereignty which belong and apper- 
tain to a free and independent State. 

Adopted by a vote of 208 against 89, Jan. 19th, 
1861. 



72 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 



SPEECH OF JEFFEESON DAVIS 

ON LEAVING THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 

I rise for the purpose of announcing to the Senate 
that I have satisfactory evidence that the State of 
Mississippi, by solemn ordinance in convention 
assembled, has declared her separation from the 
United States. Under these circumstances, of 
course, my functions terminate here. It has seemed 
to be proper that I should appear in the Senate and 
announce that act, and to say something, though 
very little, upon it. The occasion does not invite 
me to go into the argument, and my physical condi- 
tion will not permit it, yet something would seem to 
be necessary on the part of the State I here repre- 
sent, on an occasion like this. It is known to 
Senators who have served here, that I have for many 
years advocated, as an essential attribute of State 
sovereignty, the right of a State to secede from the 
Union. If, therefore, I had not believed there was 
justifiable cause — if I had thought the State was 



SPEECH OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 73 

acting without sufficient provocation — still, under 
mj theory of government, I should have felt bound 
by her action. I, however, may say I think she had 
justifiable cause, and I approve of her acts. I 
conferred with the people before that act was taken, 
and counselled them that if they could not remain, 
that they should take the act. I hope none will 
confound this expression of opinion with the advo- 
cacy of the right of a State to remain in the Union, 
and disregard its constitutional obligations by nulli- 
fication. ^Nullification and secession are indeed 
antagonistic principles. ^Nullification is the remedy 
which is to be sought and applied, within the Union, 
against an agent of the United States, when the 
agent has violated constitutional obligations, and the 
State assumes for itself, and appeals to other States 
to support it. But when the States themselves, and 
the peo|)le of the States, have so acted as to convince 
us that they will not regard our constitutional rights, 
then, and then for the first time, arises the question 
of secession in its practical application. That great 
man who now reposes with his fathers, who has been 
so often arraigned for want of fealty to the Union, 
advocated the doctrine of nullification, because it 
preserved the Union. It was because of his deep- 
seated attachment to the Union that Mr. Calhoun 
advocated the doctrine of nullification, which he 



74 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

claimed would give pcaee within tlie limits of the 
Union, and not disturb it, and only be the means of 
bringing the agent before the proper tribunal of the 
States for judgment. Secession belongs to a differ- 
ent class of rights, and is to be justified upon the 
basis that the States are sovereign. The time has 
been, and I hope the time will come again, when a 
better appreciation of our Union will prevent any 
one denying that each State is a sovereign in its own 
right. Therefore, I say I concur in the act of my 
State, and feel bound by it. It is by this confound- 
ing of nullification and secession that the name of 
another great man has been invoked to justify the 
coercion of a seceding State. The phrase '* to 
execute the law," as used by General Jackson, was 
applied to a State refusing to obey the laws and still 
remaining in the Union. I remember well when 
Massachusetts was arraigned before the Senate. 
The record of that occasion will show that I said, if 
Massachusetts, in pursuing the line of st^ps, takes 
the last step which separates her from the Union, 
the right is hers, and I will neither vote one dollar 
nor one man to coerce her, but I will say to her, 
" God speed ! " Mr. Davis then proceeded to argue 
that the equality spoken of in the Declaration of 
Independence was the equality of a class in political 
rights, referring to the charge against George III. 



SPEECH OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. T5 

for inciting insurrection, as proof that it had no 
reference to the slaves. But we liave prochiimed 
our independence. This is done with no hostility or 
any desire to injure any section of the country, nor 
even for our pecuniary benefit, but from the high 
and solid foundation of defending and protecting the 
rights we inherited, and transmitting them unshorn 
to onr posterity. I know no hostility to you 
Senators here, and am sure there is not one 
of yon, whatever may have been the sharp discussion 
between us, to whom I cannot now say, in the 
presence of my God, I wish you well. And such is 
the feeling, I am sure, the people I represent feel 
towards those whom you represent. I, therefore, 
feel I but express their desire, when I say I hope 
and they hope for those peaceful relations with you, 
though we must part, that may be mutually bene- 
ficial to us in the future. There will be peace if you 
so will it, and you may bring disaster on every part 
of the country, if you thus will have it. And if you 
will have it thus, we will invoke the God of our 
fathers, who delivered them from the paw of the lion, 
to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and thus 
putting our trust in God, and our own firm hearts 
and strong arms, we will vindicate and defend the 
rights we claim. In the course of my long career, I 
have met with a great variety of men here, and 



76 ECHOES mOM THE SOUTH. 

there have been points of collision between ns. 
Whatever of offence there has been to me, I leave 
here. I carry no hostile feelings away. Whatever 
of offence I have given, which has not been 
redressed, I am willing to say to Senators in this 
hour of parting, I offer you my apology for 
any thing I may have done in the Senate ; and I go 
thus released from obligation, remembering no 
injury I have received, and having discharged what 
I deem the duty of man, to offer the only reparation 
at this hour for every injury I have ever inflicted. 

[As the Senators from Florida, Alabama and 
Mississippi were about to retire from the Senate^ all 
the Democratic Senators crowded around them and 
shook hands with them. Messrs. Hale and Cameron 
were the only Eepublican Senators that did so.] 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. Y7 



AFEICAN SLAVERY, 

THE COENER-STONE OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY. 

A SPEECH BY HON. ALEXANDEE H. STEPHENS, VICE-PEESIDENT 
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMEEICA, DELIVEEED AT 
THE ATHENEUM, SAVANNAH, MAECH 22, 1861. 

Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of the Comisiittee, 
AND Fellow-Citizens — For tliis reception you will 
please accept my most profound and sincere thanks. 
The compliment is doubtless intended as much, or 
more perhaps, in honor of the occasion, and my pub- 
lic position in connection with the great events now 
crowding upon us, than to me personally and indi- 
vidually. It is, however, none the less appreciated 
on that account. We are in the midst of one of the 
greatest epochs in our history. The last ninety days 
will mark one of the most memorable eras in the 
history of modern civilization. 

[There was a general call from the outside of the buildtag 
for the speaker to go out ; that there were more outside than 
m. The Mayor rose and requested silence at the doors ; said 



78 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

Mr. Stephens's health would not permit him to speak in the 
open air. Mr. Stephens said he would leave it to the audience 
whether he should proceed indoors or out. There was a 
general cry indoors, as the ladies — a large number of whom 
were present — could not hear outside. Mr. Stephens said that 
the accommodation of the ladies would determine the question, 
and he would proceed where he was. At this point the uproar 
and clamor outside were greater still for the speaker to go out 
on the steps. This was quieted by Col Lawton, Col. Foreman, 
Judge Jackson, and Mr. J. W. Owens, going out and stating 
the facts of the case to the dense mass of men, women, and 
children who were outside, and entertaining them in short, 
brief speeches, Mr. Stephens all this time quietly sitting down 
until the furor subsided.] 

Mr. Stephens rose and said — When perfect quiet 
is restored I shall proceed. I cannot speak as long 
as there is any noise or confusion. I shall take my 
time. I feel as though I could spend the night with 
you, if necessary. (Loud applause.) I very much 
regret that every one who desires cannot hear what 
I have to say, not that I have any display to make, 
or anything very entertaining to present ; but such 
views as I have to give I wish all, not only in this 
city, but in this State, and throughout our Confed- 
erated Republic, could hear, who have a desire to 
hear them. 

I was remarking that we were passing through 
one of the greatest revolutions in the annals of the 
world. Seven States have, within the last three 
months, thrown off an old government, and formed 
a new. This revolution has been signally marked, 
up to this time, by the fact of its having been accom- 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 79 

pUslied without the loss of a single drop of blood. 
(Applause.) This new constitution, or form of gov- 
ernment, constitutes the subject to which your 
attention will be partly invited. 

In reference to it, I make this first general 
remark : It amply secures all our ancient rights, 
franchises, and privileges. All the great principles 
of Magna Charta are retained in it. I^o citizen is 
deprived of life, liberty, or property but by the judg- 
ment of his peers, under the laws of the land. The 
great principle of religious libert}^, which was the 
honor and pride of the old Constitution, is still main- 
tained and secured. All the essentials of the old 
Constitution, which have endeared it to the hearts 
of the American people, have been preserved and 
perpetuated. (Applause.) Some changes have been, 
made ; of these I shall speak presently. Some of 
these I should have preferred not to have been made, 
but these perhaps meet the cordial approbation of a 
majority of this audience, if not an overwhelming 
majority of the people of the Confederacy. Of 
them, therefore, I will not speak. But other impor- 
tant changes do meet my cordial approbation. 
They form great improvements on the old Constitu- 
tion. So, taking the whole new Constitution, I 
have no hesitancy in giving it as my judgment, that 
it is decidedly better than the old. (Applause.) 



80 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

Allow me briefly to allude to some of these improve- 
ments. The question of building up class interests, 
or fostering one branch of industry to the prejudice 
of another, under the exercise of the revenue power, 
which gave us so much trouble under the old Con- 
stitution, is put at rest forever under the new. We 
allow the imposition of no duty with a view of giving 
advantages to one class of persons, in any trade or 
business, over those of another. All, under our 
system, stand upon the same broad principles of 
perfect equality. Honest labor and enterprise are 
left free and unrestricted in whatever pursuit they 
may be engaged. This subject came well nigh 
causing a rupture of the old Union, under the lead 
of the gallant Palmetto State, which lies on our 
border, in 1833. 

This old thorn of the tariif, which occasioned the 
cause of so much irritation in the old body politic, is 
removed forever from the new. (Applause.) 
Again, the subject of internal improvements, under 
the power of Congress to regulate commerce, is put 
at rest under our system. The power claimed by 
construction under the old Constitution was, at least, 
a doubtful one — it rested solely upon construction. 
We, of the South, generally apart from considera- 
tions of constitutional principles, opposed its exercise 
upon grounds of 'expediency and justice. ISTotwith- 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 81 

standing this opposition, millions of money in the 
common treasury had been drawn for such purposes. 
Our opposition sprung from no hostily to commerce, 
or all necessary aids for facilitating it. With us it 
was simply a question upon whom the burden should 
fall. In Georgia, for instance, we had done as much 
for the cause of internal improvements as any other 
portion of the country, according to population and 
nieans. We have stretched out lines of railroads 
from the seaboard to the mountains; dug down the 
hills and filled up the valleys at a cost of not less 
than $25,000,000. All this was done to open up an 
outlet for our products of the interior, and those to 
the west of us, to reach the marts of the world. 
1^0 State was in greater need of such facilities than 
Georgia, but we had not asked that these works 
should be made by appropriations out of the common 
Treasury. The cost of the grading, the superstruc- 
ture and equipments of our roads was borne by those 
who entered upon the enterprise. ISTay, more, not 
only the cost of the iron, no small item in the aggre- 
gate cost, was borne in the same way, but we were 
compelled to pay into the common Treasury several 
^millions of dollars for the privilege of importing the 
iron, after the price was paid for it abroad. What 
justice was there in taking this money, which our 

people paid into the common Treasury on the 
4# 



82 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

importation of our iron, and applying it to the im- 
provement of rivers and liarbors elsewhere? 

Tiie true principle is, to subject commerce of 
every locality to wliatever burdens may be necessary 
to facilitate it. If Charleston harbor needs improve- 
ment, let the commerce of Charleston bear the 
burden. If the mouth of the Savannah River has to 
be cleared out, let the sea-going navigation which is 
benefitted by it bear the burden. So with the 
mouths of the Alabama and Mississippi rivers. Just 
as the products of the interior, our cotton, wheat, 
corn, and other articles have to bear the necessary 
rates of frieght over our railroads to reach the seas. 
This is again the broad, principle of perfect equality 
and justice. (Applause.) And it is specially held 
forth and established in our new Constitution. 

Another feature to which I will allude is, that 
the new Constitution provides that cabinet ministers 
and heads of departments shall have the privilege of 
seats upon the floor of the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives — shall have the right to participate in 
the debates and discussions upon the various subjects 
of administration. I should have preferred that this 
provision should have gone further, and allowed the 
President to select his constitutional advisers from 
the Senate and House of Representatives. That 
would have conformed entirely to the practice in the 



SPEECH OF HON. A. II. STEPHENS. S3 

British Parliament, wbicli, in my judgment, is one 
of the wisest provisions in the British Parliament. 
It is the only feature that saves that government. 
It is that which gives it stability in its facility to 
change its administration. Ours, as it is, is a great 
approximation to the right principle. 

Under the old Constitution a Secretary of the 
Treasury, for instance, had no opportunity, save by 
his annual reports, of presenting any scheme or plan 
of finance or other matter. He had no opportunity 
of explaining, expounding, enforcing, or defending 
his views of policy ; his only resott was through the 
medium of an organ. In the British Parliament the 
premier brings in his budget, and stands before the 
nation responsible for its every item. If it is inde- 
fensible, he falls before the attacks upon it, as he 
ought to. This will now be the case, to a limited 
extent, under our system. Our heads of departments 
can speak for themselves and the administration, in 
behalf of its Entire policy, without resorting to the 
indirect and highly objectionable medium of a news- 
paper. It is to be greatly hoped that under our 
system we shall never have w^hat is known as a gov- 
ernment organ. (Eapturous applause.) 

[A noise again arose from the clamor of the 
crowd outside, who wished to hear Mr. Stephens, 
and for some moments interrupted him. The Mayor 



84 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

rose and called on the police to preserve order. 
Quiet being restored, Mr. S. proceeded.] 

Another change in the Constitution relates to the 
length of the tenure of the Presidential office. In 
the new Constitution, it is six years instead of four, 
and the President rendered inelligible for re-election. 
This is certainly a decidedly conservative change. 
It v^ill remove from the incumbent all temptation to 
use his office or exert the powers confided to him for 
any objects of personal ambition. The only 
incentive to that higher ambition which should move 
and actuate one holding such high trusts in his hands 
will be the good of the people, the advancement, 
prosperity, happiness, safety, honor, and true glory 
of the Confederacy. (Applause.) 

But not to be tedious in enumerating the 
numerous changes for the better, allow me to allude 
to one other — though last, not least : The new 
Constitution has put at rest, forever^ all agitating 
questions relating to our peculiar institution — 
African slavery as it exists among us — the proper 
status of the negro in our form of civilization. This 
was the immediate cause of the late rupture and 
present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had 
anticipated this, as the " rock upon which the old 
Union would split." He was right. What was 
conjecture with him is now a realized fact. But 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 85 

whether he comprehended the great trutli upon 
which that rock stood and stands^ may be doubted. 
The prevailing ideas entertained bj liim and most of 
the leading statesmen at the time of the formation 
of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement 
of the African was in violation of the laws of 
nature ; that it was wrong in jprinciple^ socially, 
morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew 
not well how to deal with, but the general opinion 
of the men of that day was that, somehow or other, 
in the order of Providence, the institution would be 
evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not 
incorporated in the Constitution, was the prevailing 
idea at the time. The Constitution, it is true, 
secured every essential guaranty to the institution 
while it should last, and hence no argument can be 
justly used against the constitutional guarantees thus 
secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. 
Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. 
They rested upon the assumption of the equality of 
races. This was an error. It was a sandy founda- 
tion, and the idea of a government built upon it ; 
when the " storm came and the wind blew, \ifellP 

Our new government is founded upon exactly the 
opposite idea; its foundations ■ are laid, its. corner- 
stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not 
equal to the white man. That slavery — subordina- 



86 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

tion to the superior race— is his natural and moral 
condition. (Applause.) 

This, our new government, is the first in the 
history of the world based upon this great physical, 
philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been 
slow in the process of its development, like all other 
truths in the various departments of science. It has 
been so even among us. Many who hiBar me, per- 
haps, can recollect well that this truth was not 
generally admitted even within their day. The 
errors of the past generation still clung to many as 
late as twenty years ago. Those at the E'orth who 
still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowl- 
edge, we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism 
springs from an aberration of the mind — from a 
defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanitj^ 
One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, 
in many instances, is forming correct conclusions 
from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the 
anti-slavery fanatics ; their conclusions are right, if 
their premises are. They assume that the negro is 
equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to 
equal privileges and rights with the white man. If 
their premises w^ere correct, their conclusion would 
be logical and just ; but their premise being wrong, 
their whole argument fails. I recollect once of 
bavins: heard a gentleman from one of the Northern 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 87 

State?, of great power and ability, announce in the 
House of Representatives, Avitli imposing effect, that 
we of the South would be compelled, ultimately, to 
yield upon this subject of slavery ; that it was as 
impossible to war successfully against a princi])le in 
politics, as it was in physics or mechanics. That the 
principle would ultimately prevail. That we, in 
maintaining slavery as it exists with us, were warring 
against a principle, a principle founded in nature, 
the principle of the equality of man. The reply I 
made to him was, that upon his own grounds we 
should succeed, and that he and his associates in 
their crusades against our institutions, would ulti- 
mately fail. The truth announced that it was as 
impossible to war successfully against a j)rinciple in 
politics as in physics and mechanics, I admitted, but 
told him that it was he and those acting with him 
who were warring against a principle. They were 
attempting to make things equal which the Creator 
had made unequal. 

In the conflict thus far, success has been on our 
side, complete throughout the length and breadth of 
the Confederate States. It is upon this, as I have 
stated, our social fabric is firmly planted, and I can 
not permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of a 
full recognition of this principle throughout the 
civilized and enlightened world. 



88 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

As I have stated, the truth of this principle may 
be slow in development,, as all truths are, and ever 
have been, in the various branches of science. It 
was so with the principles announced by Galileo ; it 
was so with Adam Smith and his principles of 
political economy. It was so with Harvey and his 
theory of the circulation of the blood. It is stated 
that not a single one of the medical profession, liviug 
at the time of the announcement of the truths made 
by him, admitted them. JS^ow, they are universally 
acknowledged. May we not, therefore, look with 
confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment 
of the truths upon which our system rests ? It is the 
first government ever instituted upon principles in 
strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of 
Providence, in furnishing the materials of human 
society. Many governments have been founded 
upon the principle of the enslavement of certain 
classes ; but the classes thus enslaved were of the 
sam^ race and in violation of the laws of nature. 
Our system commits no such violation of nature's 
laws. The negro by nature, or by the curse against 
Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies 
in our system. The architect, in the construction 
of buildings, lays the foundation with proper mate' 
rials — the granite — then comes the brick or the 
marble. The substratum of our societv is made of 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 89 

the material fitted by nature for it, and by expe- 
rience we know that it is best not only for the 
superior, but for the inferior race that it should be 
so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance 
of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the 
wisdom of His ordinances or to question them. For 
His own purposes He has made one race to differ 
from another, as He has made " one star to differ 
from another in glory." 

The great objects of humanity are best attained, 
when conformed to His laws and decrees, in the 
formation of governments as well as in all things 
else. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles 
in strict conformity with these laws. This stone 
w^hich was rejected by the first builders, " is become 
the chief stone of the corner" in our new edifice. 
(Applause.) 

I have been asked, what of the future ? It has 
been apprehended by some that we would have 
arrayed against us the civilized world. I care not 
who or how many they may be, when we stand upon 
the eternal principles of truth we are obliged and 
must triumph. (Immense applause.) 

Thousands of people who begin to understand 
these truths are not yet completely out of the shell. 
They do not see them in their length and breadth. 
We hear much of the civilization and Christianiza- 



90 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

tion of the barbarous tribes of Africa. In my 
judgment, tliose ends will never be attained, but by 
first teaching them the lesson taught to Adam, that 
" in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread " 
(applause), and teaching them to work, and feed, 
and clothe themselves. But to pass on : some have 
propounded the inquiry, whether it is practicable for 
us to go on with the Confederac}^ without further 
accessions? Have w^e the means and ability to 
maintain nationality among the powers of the earth? 
On this point I would barely say, that as anxiously 
as we all have been and are for the Border States, 
with institutions similar with ours, to join us, still 
we are abundantly able to maintain our position, 
even if they should ultimately make up their minds 
not to cast their destiny with ours. That they 
ultimately will join us — be compelled to do it — is 
my confident belief, but we can get on very well 
without them, even if they should not. 

We have all the essential elements of a high 
national career. The idea has been given out at the 
IN'orth, and even in the Border States, that we are 
too small and too weak to maintain a separate 
nationality. This is a great mistake. In extent of 
territory we embrace 564,000 square miles and 
upwards. This is upward of 200,000 square miles 
more than was included within the limits of the 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 91 

origical thirteen States. It is an area of country 
more than double the territory of France or the 
Austrian Empire. France, in round numbers, has 
but 212,000 square miles. Austria, in round numbers, 
has 24:8,000 square miles. Ours is greater than both 
combined. It is greater than all France, Spain, Por- 
tugal, and Great Britain, including England, Ire- 
land, and Scotland together. In population we have 
upward of eight millions, according to the census of 
1860; this includes white and black. The entire 
population, including white and black, of the original 
thirteen States, was less than 4,000,000 in 1790, and 
still less in '76, when the independence of our fathers 
was achieved. If they, with a less population, dared 
to maintain their independence against the greatest 
power on earth, shall we have any apprehension of 
maintaining ours now ? 

In point of material wealth and resources we are 
greatly in advance of them. The taxable property 
of the Confederate States can not be less than 
$22,000,000,000. This, I think, I venture but little 
in saying, may be considered as five times more than 
the colonies possessed at the time they achieved their 
independence. Georgia alone possessed last year, 
according to the report of our Comptroller-General, 
$672,000,000 of taxable property. The debts of the 
seven Confederate States sum up, in the aggregate, 



92 ECHOES EEOM THE SOUTH. 

less than |18,000,000 ; while the existing debts of 
the other of the late United States sum np, in the 
aggregate, the enormous amount of $174,000,000. 
This is without taking into the account the heavy 
city debts, corporation debts, and railroad debts, 
which press, and will continue to press, a heavy, 
incubus upon the resources of those States. These 
debts, added to others, make . a sum total not much 
under $500,000,000. With such an area of territory 
— with such an amount of population — with a 
climate and soil unsurpassed by any on the face of 
the earth — with such resources already at our com- 
mand — with productions which control the 
commerce of the world, who can entertain any 
apprehensions as to our success, whether others join 
us or not ? 

It is true, I believe, I state but the common 
sentiment, when I declare my earnest desire that the 
Border States should join us. The differences of 
opinion that existed among us anterior to secession 
related more to the policy in securing that result by 
cooperation than from any difference upon the 
ultimate security we all looked to in common. 

These differences of opinion were more in refer- 
ence to policy than principle, and as Mr. Jefferson 
said in his inaugural, in 1801, after the heated 
contest preceding his election, there might be differ- 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 93 

ences iu opinion without differences in principle, and 
that all, to some extent, had been Federalists and all 
Republicans ; so it may now be said of us, that 
whatever differences of opinion as to the best policy 
in having a cooperation with our border sister Slave 
States, if the worst comes to the worst, that as we 
were all cooperationists, we are all now for inde- 
pendence, whether they come or not. (Continued 
applause.) 

In this connection I take this occasion to state 
that I was not without grave and serious apprehen- 
sion, that if the worst came to the worst, and cutting 
loose from the old government would be the only 
remedy for om^ safety and security, it would be 
attended with much more serious ills than it has 
been as yet. Thus far we have seen none of those 
incidents which usually attend revolutions. !N"o 
such material as such convulsions usually throw up 
has been seen. Wisdom, prudence, and patriotism 
have marked every step of our progress thus far. 
This augurs well for the future, and it is a matter of 
sincere gratification to me, that I am enabled to 
make the declaration of the men I met in the 
Congress at Montgomery (I may be pardoned for 
saying this), an abler, wiser — a more conservative, 
deliberate, determined, resolute, and patriotic body 
of men I never met in my life. (Great applause.) 



94: ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

Their works speak for tliem ; tLe Provisional 
Government speaks for them ; the Constitution of 
the permanent Government will be a lasting monu- 
ment of their worth, merit, and statesmanship. 
(App]ause.) 

But to return to the question of the future. 
What is to be the result of this revolution ? 

Will everything, commenced so well, continue as 
it has begun ? In reply to this anxious inquiry, I 
can only say it all depends upon ourselves. A 
young man starting out in life on his majority, with 
health, talent, and ability, under a favoring Provi- 
dence, may be said to be the architect of his own 
fortunes. His destinies are in his own hands. He 
may make for himself a name of honor or dishonor, 
according to his own acts. If he plants himself upon 
truth, integrity, honor, and uprightness, with 
industry, patience, and energy, he cannot fail of 
success. So it is with us ; we are a young Pepublic, 
just entering upon the arena of nations ; we will be 
the architect of our own fortunes. Our destiny, 
under Providence, is in our own hands. With wis- 
dom, prudence, and statesmanship on the part of our 
public men, and intelligence, virtue, and patriotism 
on the part of the people, success, to the full 
measures of our most sanguine hopes, may be 
looked for. But if we become divided — if schisms 



SrEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 95 

arise — if dissensions spring np — if factions are 
engendered — if party spirit, nourished by unholy 
personal ambition, shall rear its hydra head, I have 
no good to prophesy for you. Without intelligence, 
virtue, integrity, and patriotism on the part of the 
people, no republic or representative government 
can be durable or stable. 

We have intelligence, and virtue, and patriotism. 
All that is required is to cultivate and perpetuate 
these. Intelligence vrill not do without virtue. 
France was a nation of philosophers. These philoso- 
phers became Jacobins. They lacked that virtue, 
that devotion to moral principle, and that patriotism 
which is essential to good government. Organized 
upon principles of perfect justice and right — seeking 
amity and friendship Avith all other powers — I see 
no obstacle in the way of our upward and onward 
progress. Our grow^th, by accessions from other 
States, will depend greatly upon whether we present 
to the world, as I trust we shall, a better government 
than that to which they belong. If we do this, 
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas can not 
hesitate long ; neither can Yirginia, Kentucky, and 
,j Missouri. They will necessarily gravitate to us by 
' an imperious law. We made ample provision in our 
Constitution for the admission of other States ; it is 
more guarded, and wisely so, I think, than the old 



96 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

Constitution on the same subject, but not too 
guarded to receive tbem as fast as it may be proper. 
Looking to the distant future, and, perhaps, not very 
distant either, it is not beyond the range of possi- 
bility, and even probability, that all the great States 
of the I^orthwest shall gravitate this way as well as 
Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, etc. 
Should they do so, our doors are wide enough to 
receive them, but not until they are ready to 
assimilate with us in principle. 

The process of disintegration in the old Union 
may be expected to go on with almost absolute cer- 
tainty. We are now the nucleus of a growing 
power, which, if we are true to ourselves, our des- 
tiny, and high mission, will become the controlling 
power on this continent. To what extent accession 
will go on in the process of time, or where it will 
end, the future will determine. So far as it concerns 
States of the old Union, they will be upon no such 
principle of reconstimction as now spoken of, but 
upon reorganization and new assimilation. (Loud 
applause.) Such are some of the glimpses of the 
future as I catch them. 

But at first we must necessarily meet with the 
inconveniences, and difficulties, and embarrassments 
incident to all changes of government. These will 
be felt in our postal affairs and changes in the chan- 



SPEECH OF nON. A. H. STEPHENS. 97 

nel of trade. These inconveniences, it is to be hoj)ed, 
will be but temporary, and must be borne with 
patience and forbearance. 

As to whether we shall have war with our late 
confederates, or whether all matters of differences 
between us shall be amicably settled, I can only say 
that the prospect for a peaceful adjustment is better, 
so far as I am informed, than it has been. 

The prospect of war is at least not so threatening 
as it has been. The idea of coercion shadowed forth 
in President Lincoln's Inaugural seems not to be 
followed up thus far so vigorously as was expected. 
Fort Sumter, it is believed, will soon be evacuated. 
What course will be pursued toward Fort Pickens 
and the other forts on the Gulf, is not well under- 
stood. It is to be greatly desired that all of them 
should be surrendered. Our object is Peace^ not 
only with the J^orth, but wath the world. All mat- 
ters relating to the public property, public liabilities 
of the Union when we were members of it, we are 
ready and willing to adjust and settle, upon the 
principles of right, equality and good faith. "War 
can be of no more benefit to the JS'orth than to us. 
The idea of coercing us, or subjugating us, is utterly 
preposterous. Whether the intention of evacuating 
Fort Sumter is to be received as an evidence of a 
desire for a peaceful solution of our difficulties with 
5 



98 . ECHOES EEOM THE SOUTH. 

the United States, or the result of necessity, I will 
not undertake to say. I would fain hope the former. 
Rumors are afloat, however, that it is the result of 
necessity. All I can say to you, therefore, on that 
point is, keep your armor bright and your powder 
dry. (Enthusiastic applause.) 

The surest way to secure peace is to show your 
ability to maintain your rights. The principles and 
position of the present Administration of the United 
States — the Republican party — present some puz- 
zling questions. While it is a fixed principle with 
them never to allow the increase of a foot of slave 
territory, they seem to be equally determined not to 
part with an inch "of the accursed soil." IN'otwith- 
standing their clamor against the institution, they 
seem to be equally opposed to getting more, or letting 
go what they have got. They were ready to fight 
on the accession of Texas, and are equally ready to 
fight now on her secession. Why is this ? How can 
this strange paradox be accounted for? There seems 
to be but one rational solution, and that is, notwith- 
standing their professions of humanity, they are 
disinclined to give up the benefits they derive from 
slave labor. Their philanthropy yields to their 
interest. The idea of enforcing the laws has but one 
object, and that is the collection of the taxes raised 
by slave labor to swell the fund necessary to meet 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 99 

tlieir heavy appropriations. The spoils is what tliey 
are after, though they come from the labor of tlie 
slave. (Continned applause.) 

Mr. Stephens reviewed at some length the 
extravagance and profligacy of appropriations by tlie 
Congress of the United States for several years past, 
and in this connection took occasion to allude to 
another one of the great improvements in our new 
Constitution, which is a clause prohibiting Congress 
from appropriating any money from the Treasury 
except by a two-thirds vote, unless it be for some 
object which the Executive may say is necessary to 
carry on the Government. 

When it is thus asked for and estimated, he con- 
tinued, the majority may appropriate. This was a 
new feature. , 

Our fathers had guarded the assessment of taxes 
by insisting that representation and taxation should 
should 2^0 too-ether. This was inherited from the 
mother country — England. It was one of the prin- 
principles upon which the [Revolution had been 
fought. Our fathers also provided in the old Consti- 
tion that all appropriation bills should originate in 
the Representative branch of Congress ; but our new 
Constitution went a step further, and guarded not 
only the pockets of the people, but also the public 
money, after it was taken from their pockets. 



100 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

He alluded to the difficulties and embarrassments 
wliich seemed to surround the question of a peaceful 
solution of the controversy with the old Government. 
How* can it be done ? is perplexing many minds. 
The President seems to think that he cannot recog- 
nize our independence, nor can he, with and by the 
advice of the Senate, do so. The Constitution makes 
no such provision. A general convention of all the 
States has been suggested by some. Without 
proposing to solve the difficulty, he barely made the 
following suggestions : 

That as the admission of States by Congress 
under the Constitution was an act of legislation, and 
in the nature of a contract or compact between the 
States admitted and the others admitting, why should 
not this contract or compact be regarded as of like 
character with all other civil contracts — liable to be 
rescinded by mutual agreement of both parties ? 
The seceding States have rescinded it on their part. 
"Why can not the whole question be settled, if the 
North desire peace, simply by the Congress, in both 
branches, with the concurrence of the President, 
giving their consent to the separation, and a recog- 
nition of our independence? This he merely offered 
as a suggestion, as one of the ways in which it might 
be done with much less violence to constructions of 
the Constitution than many other acts of that Gov- 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 101 

ernment. (Applause.) The difficulty has to be 
solved in some waj or other — this may be regarded 
as a fixed fact. 

Several other points were alluded to by Mr. S., 
particularly as to the policy of the new Government 
toward foreign nations and our commercial relations 
with them. Free trade, as far as practicable, would 
be the policy of this Government. ITo higher 
duties would be imposed on foreign importation than 
would be necessary to support the Government upon 
the strictest economy. 

In olden times the olive branch was considered 
the emblem of peace. We will send to the nations 
of the earth another and far more potential emblem 
of the same — the Cotton Plant. The present duties 
were levied with a view of meeting the present 
necessities and exigencies, in preparation for war, if 
need be ; but if we had peace — and he hoped we 
might — and trade should resume its proper course, a 
duty of ten per cent, upon foreign importations, it 
was thought, might be sufficient to meet the expen- 
ditures of the Government. If some articles should 
be left on the free list, as they now are, such as 
breadstuffs, etc., then, of course, duties upon others 
would have to be higher— but in no event to an 
extent to embarrass trade and commerce. He con- 
cluded in an earnest appeal for union and harmony, 



102 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

on the part of all the people, in support of the 
common cause, in which we are all enlisted, and 
upon the issues of which such great consequences 
depend. 

If, said he, we are true to oui'selves, true to our 
cause, true to our destiny, true to our high mission, 
in presenting to the w^orld the highest type of civili- 
zation ever exhibited bj man, there will be found in 
our lexicon no such word as Fail. 

Mr. Stephens took his seat amid a burst of 
enthusiasm and applause such as the Atheneum has 
never displayed within its walls within "the recol- 
lection of the oldest inhabitant." 



ROBERT TOOMBS' ADDEESS. 103 



EOBEET TOOMBS' ADDEESS, 

TO THE PEOPLE OF GEORGIA, 

TELEGEAPHED FEOM WASHINGTON, DEO. 23, 1860. 

I CAME liere to secure your constitutional rights, 
and to demonstrate to you that you can get no guar- 
antee for those rights from your J^orthern confede- 
rates. The whole subject was referred to a 
Committee of Thirteen in the Senate. I was 
appointed on the Committee, and accepted the trust. 
I submitted propositions, which, so far from receiving 
decided support from a single member of the Repub- 
lican party of the Committee, were all treated with 
derision or contempt. A vote was then taken in the 
Committee on amendments to the Constitution 
proposed by Hon. J. J. Crittenden, and each and all 
of them were voted against unanimously by the 
Black Eepublican members of the Committee. In 
addition to these facts, a majority of the Black 
Eepublican members of the Committee declared 
distinctly that they had no guarantees to offer, which 



104 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

was silently acquiesced in by the other members. 
The Black Republican members of this Committee 
of Thirteen are representative men of the party and 
section, and, to the extent of my information, truly 
represent them. 

The Committee of Thirty-three on Friday 
adjourned for a week, without coming to any vote, 
after solemnly pledging themselves to vote on all the 
propositions then before them on that day. It is 
controlled by the Black Republicans, your enemies, 
who only seek to amuse you with delusive hope until 
your election, that you may defeat the friends of 
secession. If you are deceived by them, it shall not 
be my fault. I have put the test fairly and frankly. 
It is decisive against you now. I tell you, upon the 
faith of a true man, that all further looking to the 
North for security for your constitutional rights in 
the Union ought to be instantly abandoned. It is 
fraught with nothing but ruin to yourselves and your 
posterity. Secession by the 4th day of March next 
should be thundered from the ballot box by the 
unanimous vote of Georgia on the 2d day of January 
next. Such a voice will be your best guarantee for 
liberty, security, tranquillity, and glory. 

R. Toombs. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 105 



THE CONSTITUTION 

OF THE 

OONFEDEEATE STATES OF AMEEIOA. 



We, the people of the Confederate States, each 
State acting in its sovereign and independent 
character, in order to form a permanent Federal 
Government, establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
quillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to our- 
selves and our posterity, invoking the favor and guid- 
ance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the Confederate States of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

§ 1. All Legislative powers herein delegated 
shall be vested in a Congress of the Confederate 
States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of 
Bepresentatives. 

§ 2. The House of Eepresentatives shall be 
chosen every second year by the peo]~)le of the several 
States, and the electors in each State shall be citi- 
5=* 



106 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

zens of the Confederate States, and have the qualifi- 
cations requisite for electors of the most numerous 
branch of the State Legislature ; but no person 
of foreign birth, not a citizen of the Confederate 
States, shall be allowed to vote for any officer, civil 
or political. State or Federal. 

2d. JSTo person shall be a representative who shall 
not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and 
be a Citizen of the Confederate States, and who shall 
not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in 
which he shall be chosen. 

3d. Representatives and direct taxes shall be 
apportioned among the several States which may be 
included within this Confederacy, according to their 
respective numbers, which shall be determined by 
adding to the whole number of free persons, includ- 
ing those bound to service for a term of years, and 
excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all slaves. 
The actual enumeration shall be made within three 
years after the first meeting of Congress of the 
Confederate States, and within every subsequent 
term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by 
law direct. The number of representatives shall not 
exceed one for every fifty thousand, but each State 
shall have at least one representative, and until such 
enumeration shall be made, the State of South Caro- 
lina shall be entitled to choose six, the State of 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE S1ATE8. 107 

Georgia ten, the State of Alabama nine, the State of 
Florida two, the State of Mississippi seven, the 
State of Louisiana six, and the State of Texas six. 

4th. When vacancies happen in the representation 
of anj State, the executive authority thereof shall 
issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

5th. The House of Representatives shall choose 
their speaker and other oflicers, and shall have the 
sole power of inipeacliment, except that any judicial 
or other federal officer, resident and acting solely 
within the limits of any State, may be impeached by 
a vote of two-thirds of both branches of the legis- 
lature thereof. 

§ 3. The Senate of the Confederate States shall 
be composed of two senators from each State, chosen 
for six years by the legislature thereof at the regular 
session next immediately preceding the commence- 
ment of the term of service, and each senator shall 
have one vote. 

2d. Immediately after they shall be assembled in 
consequence of the first election, they shall be 
divided as equally as may be into three classes. 
The seats of the senators of the first class shall be 
vacated at the expiration of the second year; of the 
second class, at the expiration of the fourth year ; 
and of the third class, at the expiration of the sixth 
year — so that one third may be chosen every second 



108 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

year — and if vacancies happen by resignation or 
otherwise during the recess of the legislature of any 
State, the executive may make temporary appoint- 
ments until the next meeting of the legislature, 
which shall then fill such vacancies. 

3d. 'No person shall be a senator who shall not 
have attained the age of thirty years and be a 
citizen of the Confederate States, and who shall not 
when elected be an inhabitant of the State for which 
he shall be chosen. 

4:th. TheYice-President of the Confederate States 
shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no 
vote, unless they be equally divided. 

6th. The Senate shall choose their other officers, 
and also a president (pro tempore) in the absence of 
the Yice-President, or when he shall exercise the 
office of President of the Confederate States. 

6th. The Senate shall have sole power to try all 
impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they 
shall be on oath or affirmation. When the Presi- 
dent of the Confederate States is tried, the chief 
justice shall preside, and no person shall be con- 
victed without the concurrence of two-thirds of the 
members present. 

Tth. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not 
extend further than removal from office and disquali- 
fication to hold and enjoy any office q+' honor, trust. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 109 

or profit nnder the Confederate States ; bat the 
party convicted sliall nevertheless be liable to, and 
subject to, indictment, trial, judgment and punish- 
ment, according to law. 

§ 4. The times, places, and manner of holding 
elections for senators and representatives shall be 
prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof, 
subject to the provisions of this constitution ; but the 
Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter 
such regulations, except as to the times and places of 
choosing senators. 

2d. The Congress shall assemble at least once in 
every year, and such meetings shall be on the first 
Monday in December, unless they shall by law 
appoint a different day. 

§ 5. Each house shall be judge of the elections, 
returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a 
majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do 
business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from 
day to day, and may be authorized to compel the 
attendance of absent members in such manner and 
under such penalties as each house may provide. 

2d. Each house may determine the rules of its 
proceedings, punish its members for disorderly 
behaviour, and with the concurrence of two-thirds of 
the whole number expel a member. 

3d. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceed- 



110 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

mgs, and from time to time publish the same, 
excepting such parts as may in its judgment require 
secresj, and the ayes and nays of the members of 
either house on any question shall, at the desire of 
one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 

4th. ]^either house, during the session of Congress, 
shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for 
more than three days, nor to any other place than 
that in which the two houses shall be sitting. . 

§ 6. The senators and representatives shall 
receive a compensation for their services to be ascer- 
tained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the 
Confederate States. They shall in all cases, except 
treason and breach of the peace, be privileged from 
arrest during their attendance at the session of their 
respective houses, and in going to and from the 
same, and for any speech or debate' in either house 
they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

2d. 'No senator or representative shall, during the 
time for which he was elected, bo appointed to any 
civil office under the authority of the Confederate 
States which shall have been created, or the emolu- 
ments whereof shall have been increased during such 
time, and no person holding office under the Con- 
federate States shall be a member of either house 
during his continuance in office. But Congress may 
by law grant to the principal officer in each of the 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. Ill 

executive departments a seat upon the floor of either 
house with the privilege of discussing any measure 
appertaining to his department. 

§ T. All hills for raising revenue shall originate 
in the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may 
propose or concur v^ith amendments as on other bills. 

2d. Every bill which shall have passed both houses 
shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the 
President of the Confederate States ; if he approve, 
he shall sign it ; but if not, he will return it with his 
objections to that house in which it shall have origi- 
nated, who shall enter the objections at large on 
their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after 
such reconsiderations, two-thirds of that house shall 
agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with 
the objections to the other house, by which it 
shall be likewise reconsidered, and if approved by 
two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law ; but 
in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be 
determined by ayes and nays, and the names of the 
persons voting for and against the bill shall be 
entered on the journal of each house respectively. 
If any bill shall not be returned by the President 
within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall 
have been presented to him, the same shall be a law 
in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Con- 
gress, by their adjournment, prevent its return ; in 



112 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

whicli ease it shall not be a law. The President 
may approve any appropriation and disapprove any 
other appropriation in the same bill ; in such case he 
shall, in signing the bill, designate the appropria- 
tions disapproved, and shall return a copy of such 
appropriations, with his objections, to the house in 
which the bill shall have originated, and the same 
proceedings shall then be had as in case of other 
bills disapproved by the President. 

3d. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the 
concurrence of both houses may be necessary (except 
on questions of adjournment) shall be presented to 
the President of the Confederate States, and before 
the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, 
or, being disapproved by him, may be repassed by 
two-thirds of both houses, according to the rules and 
limitations prescribedin case of a bill. 
§ 8. The Congress shall have power : 
1st. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and 
excises for revenue necessary to pay the debts, pro- 
vide for common defence, and carry on the Govern- 
ment of the Confederate States ; but no bounties 
shall be granted from the treasury, nor shall any 
duties or taxes on importations from foreign nations 
be laid to promote or foster any branch of industry, 
and all duties, imports, and excises shall be uniform 
throughout the Confederate States. 



CONSTITTJTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 113 

2d. To borrow money on the credit of the Con- 
federate States. 

3d. To regulate commerce with foreign nations 
and among the several States, and with the Indian 
tribes; but neither this nor any other chiuse 
contained in the constitution shall be construed to 
delegate the power to Congress to appropriate 
money for any internal improvement intended to 
facilitate commerce, except for the purpose of 
furnishing lights, beacons, and buoys, and other aids 
to navigation upon the coasts, and the improvement 
of harbors, and the moveing of obstructions in 
river navigation, in all which cases such duties shall 
be laid on the navigation facilitated thereby as may 
be necessary to pay the costs and expenses thereof. 

4:th. To establish uniform laws of naturalization, 
and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies 
throughout the Confederate States ; but no law of 
Congress shall discharge any debt contracted before 
the passage of the same. 

5th. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, 
and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights 
and measures. 

6t]i. To provide for the punishment of counter- 
feiting the securities and current coin of the Con- 
federate States. 

7th. To establish post offices and post routes ; but 



114 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

the expenses of the post office department after the 
first day of March, in the year of our Lord eighteen 
hundred and sixty-three, shall be paid out of its own 
revenues. 

8th. To promote the progress of science and useful 
arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and 
inventors the exclusive right to their respective 
writings and discoveries. 

9th. To constitute tribunals inferior to the 
Supreme Court. 

10th. To define and punish piracies and felonies 
committed on the high seas,, and offences against the 
law of nations. 

11th. To declare war, grant letters of marque and 
I'eprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land 
and water. 

12th. To raise and support armies ; but no appro- 
priations of money for that use shall be for a longer 
term than two years. 

13th. To provide and maintain a navy. 

14th. To make rules for government and regula- 
tion of the land and naval forces, 

15th. To provide for calling forth the militia to 
execute the laws of the Confederate States, suppress 
insurrection?, and repel invasions. 

16th. To provide for organizing, arming, and dis- 
ciplining the militia, and for governing such parts 



COXSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 115 

of tliem as may be employed in the service of tlie 
Confederate States, reserving to the States respect- 
ively the appointment of the officers and the 
authority of training the militia according to the 
discipline prescribed by Congress. 

ITth. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases 
whatsoever over such district (not exceeding ten 
miles square) as may be by cession of one or more 
States and the acceptance of Congress become the 
seat of the Government of the Confederate States, 
and to exercise alike authority over all places 
purchased by the consent of the legislature of the 
State in which the same shall be for the erection of 
forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other 
needful buildings, and 

ISth. To make all laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing 
powers, and all other powers vested by this constitu- 
tion in the Government of the Confederate States, or 
in any department of office thereof 

§ 9.. The importation of negroes of the African 
race from any foreign country, other than the slave- 
holding States or Territories of the United States of 
America, is hereby forbidden, and Congress is 
required to pass such laws as shall effectually 
prevent the same. 

2d. Congress shall also have the power to pro- 



11 G ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

hibit the introdnction of slaves from any State not a 
member of, or territory not belonging to, this Con- 
federacy. 

3d. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of 
rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 

4th. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, or 
law denying or imparting the right of property in 
negro slaves, shall be passed. 

6th. ISTo capitation or other direct tax shall be 
laid unless in proportion to the census or enumera- 
tion herein before directed to be taken. 

6th. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles 
exported from any State except by a vote of two- 
thirds of both Houses. 

Yth. No preference shall be given by any regula- 
tion of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State 
over those of another. 

8th. No money shall be drawn from the treasury 
but in consequence of appropriations made by law, 
and a regnlar statement and account of the receipts 
and expenditures of all public money shall be pub- 
lished from time to time. 

9th. Congress shall appropriate no money from 
the treasury except by a vote of two-thirds of both 
Houses — taken by yeas and nays, unless it be asked 
and estimated for by some one of the heads of depart- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDEKATE STATES. 117 

ments and submitted to Congress bj the President, 
or for the purpose of paying its own expenses and 
contingencies or for the payment of claims against 
the Confederate States, the justice of which shall 
have been judicially declared by a tribunal for the 
investigation of claims against the Government, 
which is hereby made the duty of Congress to 
establish. 

10th. All bills appropriating money shall specify 
in federal currency the exact amount of each appro- 
priation and the purpose for which it is made, and 
Congress shall grant no extra compensation to any 
public contractor, officer, agent, or servant, after 
such contract shall have been made or such service 
rendered. 

11th. 'No title of nobility shall be granted by the 
Confederate States, and no person holding any office 
of profit or trust under them shall, without the con- 
sent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolu- 
ments, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any 
king, prince, or foreign State. 

12th. Congress shall make no law respecting an 
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably 
to assemble and petition the Government for redress 
of grievances. 



118 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

loth. A well regulated militia being necessary to 
the security of a free State, tlie right of the people 
to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

14th. 'No soldier shall in time of peace be quar- 
tered in any house without the consent of the owner, 
nor in time of war but in a manner prescribed by 
law. 

15th. The right of the people to be secure in their 
persons, houses, papers, and against unreasonable 
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no 
warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, sup- 
ported by oath or affirmation, and particularly 
describing the place to be searched and the person or 
things to be seized. 

16th. 'No person shall be held to answer for a 
capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a 
presentment or indictment of a grand jurj^, except in 
cases" arising in the land or naval forces or in the 
miUtia, when in actual service in time of war or 
public danger, nor shall any person be subject for the 
same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or 
limb, nor be compelled in any criminal case to be a 
witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, lib- 
erty, or property without due process of law, nor 
shall any private property be taken for public use 
without just compensation. 

17th. In all criminal prosecutions the accused 



COXSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 110 

shall enjoy the right to a speedy and puhlic trial by 
an impartial jury of the State and district wherein 
the crime shall have been committed, which district 
shall liave been previously ascertained by law, and 
to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusa- 
tion, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, 
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses 
in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for 
his defence. 

18th. In suits of common law where the value in 
controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of 
trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact so tried 
by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any 
court of the Confederacy than according to the rules 
of the common law. 

19th. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor 
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel or unusual punish- 
ment inflicted. 

20th. Every law or resolution having the force of 
law shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be 
expressed in the title. 

§ 10. ISo State shall enter into any treaty, alli- 
ance or confederation, grant letters of marque and 
reprisals, coin money, make any thing but gold and 
silver coin a tender in payment of debts, pass any bill 
of attainder or ex post facto law, or law imparting the 
obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 



120 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

2d. ^o State shall witliout the consent of Con- 
gress lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports 
except what may be absolutely necessary for execu- 
ting its ijjspection law, and the net produce of all 
duties and imposts laid by any State on imports or 
exports shall be for the use of the Treasury of the 
Confederate States, and all such laws shall be sub- 
ject to the revision and control of Congress. 

3d. 'No State shall, without the consent of Con- 
gress lay any duty of tonnage except on sea-going 
vessels, for the improvement of its rivers and harbors 
navigated by the said vessels, but such duties shall 
not conflict with any treaties of the Confederate 
States with foreign nations, and any surplus of 
revenue thus derived shall after making such 
improvements be paid into the common Treasury, 
nor shall any State keep troops or ships of war in 
time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact 
with another State or with a foreign power to engage 
in war, unless actually invaded, or in such eminent 
danger as not to admit of delay. But w^hen any 
river divides or flows through two or more States 
they may enter into compacts with each other to 
improve the navigation thereof. 

ARTICLE n. 

§ 1. The executive power shall be vested in a 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 121 

President of the Confederate Slates of America. He 
and the Yice-President shall hold their offices for a 
term of six years, but the President shall not be re- 
eligible. The President and Yice-President shall be 
elected as follows : 

2d. Each State shall appoint in such manner as 
the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of 
electors equal to the whole number of Senators and 
Representatives to which the State may be entitled 
in Congress, but no Senator or Pepresentative, or 
person holding any office of trust or profit under the 
Confederate States shall be appointed an elector. 

3d. The electors shall meet in their respective 
States and vote by ballot for President and Yice- 
President, one of whom at least, shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves, they 
shall name in their ballots the person voted for as 
President, and in distinct ballots the person voted 
for as Yice-President, and they shall make distinct 
lists ol all persons voted for as President, and of all 
persons voted for as Yice-President, and of the num- 
ber of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and 
certify and transmit sealed to the Government of the 
Confederate States, directed to the President of the 
Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in 
presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be 



122 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

counted, the person having the greatest number of 
votes for President shall be the President, if such 
number be a majority of the whole number of 
electors appointed, and if no person shall have such 
a majority, then from the persons having the highest 
numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those 
voted for as President, the House of Eepresentatives 
shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. 
But, in choosing the President, the votes shall be 
taken by States, the Pepresentative from each State 
having one vote, a quorum for this purpose shall 
consist of a member or members from two-thirds of 
the States, and a majority of all the States shall be 
necessary to a choice. And if the House of Eepre- 
sentatives shall not choose a President, whenever the 
right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 
fourth, day of March next following, then the Yice- 
President shall act as President, as in case of the 
death or other constitutional disability of the 
President. 

4th. The person having the greatest number of 
votes as Yice-President shall be the Yice-President, 
if such number be a majority of the whole number 
of electors appointed, and if no person have a 
majority, then from the two highest numbers on the 
list, the Senate shall choose the Yice-President, a 
quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 123 

the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the 
whole number shall be necessary for a choice. 

5th. But no person constitutionally ineligible to 
the office of President, shall be eligible to that of 
Yice-President of the Confederate States. 

6th. The Congress may determine the time of 
choosing the electors, and the day on which they 
shall give their votes, which day shall be the same 
throus^hout the Confederate States. 

7th. 'No person except a natural born citizen of 
the Confederate States, or a citizen thereof at the 
time of the adoption of this Constitution, or a citizen 
thereof born in the United States, prior to the 20th 
December, 1860, shall be eligible to the office of 
President, neither shall an}^ person be eligible to that 
office who shall not have attained the age of thirty- 
five years, and been fourteen years a resident within 
limits of the Confederate States, as they may exist at 
the time of his election. 

8th. In case of the removal of the President from 
office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to 
discharge the powers and duties of the said office, 
the same shall devolve on the Yice-President, and 
the Congress may by law provide for the case of the 
removal, death, resignation or inability both of the 
President and the Yice-President, declaring what 
officer shall then act as President, and such officer 



124 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

shall then act accordingly until the disability be 
removed or a President shall be elected. 

9th. The President shall, at stated times, receive 
for his services a compensation which shall neither 
be increased nor diminished during the period for 
which he shall have been elected, and he shall not 
receive within that period any other emolument 
from the Confederate States, or any of them. 

10th. Before he enters on the execution of the 
duties of his office, he shall take the following oath 
or affirmation : 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will 
faithfully execute the office of President of the Con- 
federate States and will, to the best of my ability 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution 
thereof. 

§ 2. The President shall be commander-in-chief 
of the army and navy of the Confederate States, and 
of the militia of the several States when called into 
the actual service of the Confederate States. He 
may require the opinion in writing of the principal 
officer in. each of the executive departments upon 
any subject relating to the duties of their respective 
offices, and he shall have the power to grant 
reprieves and pardons for offences against the Con- 
federate States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2d. He shall have power by and with the advice 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 125 

and consent of the Senate to make treaties, provided 
two-thirds of the Senators present concur, and he 
shall nominate and, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, 
other public ministers and consuls, judges of the 
supreme court, and all other officers of the Confede- 
rate States whose appointments are not herein otlier- 
wise provided for and which shall be established by 
law; but the Congress may by law vest the appoint- 
ment of such inferior officers as they think proper in 
the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the 
heads of departments. 

3d. The principal officer in each of the executive 
departments, and all persons connected with the 
diplomatic service, may be removed at the pleasure 
of the President. All other civil officers of the 
executive department may be removed at any time 
by the President or other appointing power, when 
their services are unnecessary, or for dishonesty, 
incapacity, inefficiency, misconduct, or neglect of 
duty, and when so removed shall be reported to the 
Senate together with the reasons therefor. 

4th. The President shall have power to fill all 
vacancies that may happen during the recess of 
the Senate by granting commissions, which shall 
expire at the end of the next session ; but no 
person rejected by the Senate shall be reap- 



126 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

pointed to the same office during their ensuing 
recess. 

§ 3. The President shall from time to time give 
to the Congress information of the state of the Con- 
federacy, and recommend to their consideration such 
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; 
he may on extraordinary occasions convene both 
houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement 
between them with respect to the time of adjourn- 
ment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall 
think proper ; he shall receive ambassadors and 
other public ministers ; he shall take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all 
the officers of the Confederate States. 

§ 4. The President and Vice-President, and all 
civil officers of the Confederate States, shall be 
removed on impeachment for, or conviction of, 
treason, bribery, or other high crimes and mis- 
demeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

§ 1. The judicial power of the Confederate States 
shall be vested in one superior court and in such 
inferior courts as the Congress may from time to 
time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the 
superior and inferior courts, shall hold their offices 
during good behavior, and shall at stated times 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDKRATE STATES. 127 

receive for their services a compensation vrhicli shall 
not be diminished during continuance in office. 

§ 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases 
arising under the Constitution, the laws of the Con- 
federate States, or treaties made or which shall be 
made under their authority, to all cases affecting 
ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, to 
all cases of admiralty, maritime jurisdiction, to con- 
troversies which the Confederate States shall be a 
party, to controversies between two or more States, 
between a State and citizens of another* State where 
the State is plaintiff, between citizens claiming lands 
under grants of different States, and between a State 
or the citizens thereof and foreign States, citizens, or 
subjects ; but no State shall be sued by a citizen or 
subject of any foreign State. 

2d. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other 
public ministers and consuls, and those in which the 
State shall be a party, the supreme court shall have 
original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before 
mentioned the supreme court shall have appellate 
jurisdiction both as to law and fact, with such 
exceptions and under such regulations as the Con- 
gress shall make. 

3d. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of 
impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trials shall 
be held in the State where the said crimes shall have 



128 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

been committed; but when not committed within 
any State, the trial shall be at such place or places 
as the Congress may by law have directed. 

§ 3. Treason against the Confederate States shall 
consist only in levying a war against them, in adher- 
ing to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. 
"No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the 
testimony of two witnesses to the same, overt act, or 
on confession in open court. 

2d. The Congress shall have power to declare the 
punishment of treason ; but no attainder of treason 
shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except 
during the life of the person attained. 

ARTICLE IV. 

§ 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each 
State to the public acts, records, and judicial pro- 
ceedings of every other State, and the Congress may 
by general laws prescribe the manner in which such 
acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved and 
the effect thereof. 

§ 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled 
to all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the 
several States, and shall have the right of transit and 
sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their 
slaves and other property ; and the right of property 
in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 129 

2d. A person charged in any State with treason, 
felony, or otlier crime af^ainst the laws of sncli State, 
who shall flee from justice and be fonnd in another 
State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of 
the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be 
removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3d. ISTo slave or other person held to service or 
labor in any State or Territory of the Confederate 
States under the laws thereof, escaping or nnlawfully 
carried into another, shall, in consequence of any law 
or regulation therein, be discharged from such 
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim 
to the party to whom such slave belongs or to whom 
such service or labor may be due. 

§ 3. Other States may be admitted into this 
Confederacy by a vote of two-thirds of the whole 
House of Representatives and two-thirds of the 
Senate — the Senate voting by States ; but no new 
State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdic- 
tion of any other State, nor any State be formed by 
the junction of two or more States or parts of States 
without the consent of the legislators of the States 
concerned as well as of the Congress. 

2d. The Congress shall have power to dispose of 
and make all needful rules and regulations concern- 
ing the property of the Confederate States, including 
the lands thereof. 
6* 



130 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

3d. The Confederate States may acquire new 
territory ; and Congress shall have power to legis- 
late and provide governments for the inhabitants of 
all territory belonging to the Confederate States, 
lying without the limits of the several States, and 
may permit them, at such times and in such manner 
as it may by law provide, to form States to be 
admitted into the Confederacy, in all such territory 
the institution of negro slavery as it now exists in 
the Confederate States shall be recognized and pro- 
tected by Congress and the territorial government, 
and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States 
and territories shall have the right to take to such 
territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of 
the States or territories of the Confederate States. 

4th. The Confederate States shall guarantee to 
every State that now is or hereafter may become a 
member of this Confederacy a republican form of 
government, and shall protect each of them against 
invasion, and on application of the legislature (or of 
the executive when the legislature is not in session) 
against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V. 

§ 1. Upon the demand of any three States, legally 
assembled in their several conventions, the Congress 
shall summon a convention of all the States to take 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, tol 

into consideration such amendments to the consti- 
tution as the said States shall concur in suo^ccestinff 
at the time when the said demand is made, and 
should any of the proposed amendments to the 
constitution be agreed on by the said convention, 
voting by the States, and the same be ratified by the 
legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, or by 
conventions of two-thirds thereof — as the one or the 
other mode of ratification ma}^ be proposed by the 
general convention — they shall thenceforward form 
a part of this constitution ; but no State shall with- 
out its consent be deprived of its equal representation 
in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

§ 1. The government established by this consti- 
tution is the successor of the provisional government 
of the Confederate States of America, all the laws 
passed by the latter shall continue in force until the 
same shall be repealed or modified, and all the 
officers appointed by the same shall remain in office 
until their successors are appointed and qualified, or 
the offices abolished. 

2d. All debts contracted and engagements 
entered into before the adoption of this constitution 
shall be as valid against the Confederate States 
under this constitution as under the provisonal 
government. 



132 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

3d. This constitution and the laws of the Con- 
federate States may, in persuance thereof, and all 
treaties made or which shall be made under the 
authority of the Confederate States, shall be the 
supreme law of the land, and the judges in every 
State shall be bound therein, by any thing in the 
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 

4th. The senators and representatives before 
mentioned, and the members of the several State 
legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, 
both of the Confederate States and of the several 
States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to sup- 
port this constitution ; but no religious test shall 
ever be required as qualification to any office of 
public trust under the Confederate States. 

5th. The enumeration in the constitution of 
certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or 
disparage others retained by the people of the 
several States, 

6th. The powers not delegated to the Confede- 
rate States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it 
to the States, are reserved to the States respect- 
ively, or to the people thereof. 

AETICLE VII. 

§ 1. The ratification of the convention of five 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 133 

States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this 
constitntiou between the States so ratifying the 
same. 

When five States shall have ratified this constitu- 
tion in a manner before specified, the Congress 
under the provisional constitution shall prescribe the 
time for holding the election for President and Yice- 
President, and for the meeting of the electoral 
college, and for counting the votes, and for inaugu- 
rating the President. They shall also prescribe the 
time for holding the first election of members of 
Congress under this constitution, and the time for 
assembling the same. 

Until the assembling of such Congress, the Con- 
gress under the provisional constitution shall 
continue to exercise the legislative powers granted 
them, not extending bej^ond the time limited by the 
Constitution of the provisional government. 
Adopted unanimously, March 11, 1861. 



5* 



134 



ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 



THE OONFEDEEATE CABINET AND 
CONQEESS. 



President— JBYFEIISON DAVIS, of Mississippi. 
Vice-President— AL'EX. H. STEPHENS, of Georgia. 
Secretary of State— J UT> All P. BENJAMIN, of La. 
Secretary of Tfar— JAMES A. SEDDON, of Ya. 
Sec. of Treasury— CB.A&. G. MEMMINGER, of S. C. 
Sec. of IVa^?/— STEPHEN R. MALLORY, of Florida. 
Attorney-General— THOMAS H. WATTS, of Ala. 
Postmaster-General— J AMI^S H. REAGAN, of Texas. 



FIRST REGULAR CONGRESS— SENATE. 

Congress met at Richmond, on tlie 2d Monday in Jan., 1863. 

A. U. Stephens, of Georgia, President. 
R. M. T. HuNTEE, of Yirginia, President pro tern. 



ALABAMA. 

Clement C. Clay 
"William L. Yancey. 

AEKANSAS. 

Robert W. Johnson 
Charles B. Mitchell. 

FLOEIDA. 

James M. Baker 
Augustus E. Maxwell . 

GEOEGIA. 

Benjamm H. Hill 
Herschel Y. Johnson . 



KENTUCKY, 



Henry C. Burnett 
William E. Simms. 

LOUISIANA. 

Thos. J. Semmes 
Edward Sparrow . 

MISSISSIPPI. 

Albert G. Brown 
James Phelan. 

MISSOUEL 

John B. Clark 
Robert S. T. Peyton. 



CONFEDERATE CONGRESS. 



135 



NOETH OAEOLIITA. 

George Davis 
William T. Diortch . 

SOUTH OAEOLINA. 

Robert W. Barnwell 
James L. On*. 



TEIWE9SEE. 

Landon C. Haynes 
GuBtavus A. Henry , 

TEXAS. 

Wm. S. Oldham 
Lewis T. Wifffall. 



YIRGINIA. 

Robert M. T. Hunter 
Allen T. Caperton. 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

Thomas S. Bocock, of Virginia, Speaker. 

KENTUCKY. 



ALABAMA. 

1 Thomas J. Foster, 

2 William R. Smith, 

3 John P. Ralls, 

4 Jabez L. McCurry, 

5 Francis S. Lyon, 

6 William P. Chilton, 

7 David Clopton, 

8 James L. Pugh, 

9 Edward L. Dargan, 

AEKAXSAS. 

1 Felly I. Batson, 

2 Grand D. Rovstou, 

3 A. H. Garland, 

4 Thomas B. Henley. 

FLOEIDA. 

1 James B. Dawkins, 

2 Robert B. Hilton. 

GEOEGIA. 

1 Julian Hartridge, 

2 C. J. Munnerlyn, 

3 Hines Holt, 

4 Augustus H. Kenan, 

5 David W. Lewis, 

6 William W. Clark, 

7 Robert P. Trippe, 

8 Lucius J. Gartrell, 

9 Hardy Strickland, 

'0 Augustus R. Wright. 



1 Alfred Boyd, 

2 John W. Crockett, 

3 H. E. Reid, 

4 George W. Ewing, 

5 James S. Christman, 

6 T. L. Burnett, 

7 H. W. Bruce, 

8 S. S. Scott, 

9 E. M. Bruce, 

10 J. W. ]\Ioore, 

11 R. J. Breckinridge, 

12 John M. Elliott. 

LOUISIANA. 

1 Charles J. Viders, 

2 Charles M. Conrad, 

3 Duncan F. Kenner, 

4 Lucien J. DuPre, 

5 John F. Lewis, 

6 John Perkins, jr. 

MISSISSIPPI. 

1 J. W. Clapp, 

2 Reuben Davis, 

3 Israel Welsh, 

4 H. C. Chambers, 

5 O. R. Singleton, 

6 E. Barksdale, 

7 John J. McRae. 



136 



ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 



MISSOUEI. 

1 W. M. Cooke, 

2 Thomas A. Harris, 

3 A. H. Com'ow, 

4 Casper W. Bell, 

5 George G. Vest, 

6 T. W. Freeman, 

7 Jolin Hyer. 

NOETH OAEOLINA. 

1 Wm. H. K Smith, 
"2 Eobert R. Bridgers, 

3 Owen R. Keenan, 

4 T. D. M. Dowell, 
6 Thomas S. Ashe, 

6 A. H. Arlington, 

7 Robert Lauder, 

8 William Lauder, 

9 Burgess S. Gaither, 
10 A. T. Davidsou. 

SOUTH OAEOLINA. 

1 John McQueen, 

2 W. Porcher Miles, 

3 L. M. Ayer, 

4 Mill edge L. Bonham, 

5 James Farrou, 

6 W. W. Boyce. 

TENNESSEE. 

1 Joseph T. Heiskell, 

2 William G. Swan, 

3 W. B. Tobhs, 



4 E. L. Gardenshii'e, 

5 Hemy S. Foote, 

6 Meredith P. Gentry, 

7 George W. Jones, 

8 Thomas Meueese, 

9 J. D. C. Atkins, 

10 John V. Wright, 

11 David M. Cunin. 



1 Jolm A. Wilcox, 

2 C. C. Herbert, 

3 Peter W. Gray, 

4 B. F. Sexton. 

5 M. D. Graham, 

6 W. B. Vaughn. 

VIEGINIA. 

1 M. R. H. Garnett, 

2 John R. Chambliss, 

3 James Lyons, 

4 Roger A. Pryor, 

5 Thomas S. Bocock, 

6 John Goode, jr, 

7 J. P. Hencombe, 

8 D. C. De Jarnefcte, 

9 William Smith, 

10 A. R. Boteler, 

11 John R. Baldwin, 

12 Waller R. Staples, 

13 Walter Preston, 

14 Samuel A. Miller, 

15 Robert Johnston, 

16 Charles W. Russell. 



INAUGURAL ADDEESS OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 137 



INAUGUEAL ADDEESS OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 



Gentlemen of the Congress of the Confederate States 
of America^ Friends and Fellow- Citizens : 

Called to the difficult and responsible station of 
Chief Executive of the Provisional Government 
which you have instituted, I approach the discharge 
of the duties assigned me with an humble distrust 
of mj abilities, but with a sustaining confidence in 
the wisdom of those who are to guide and aid me in 
the administration of public affairs, and an abiding 
faith in the virtue and patriotism of the people. 
Looking forward to the speedy establishment of a 
permanent government to take the place of this, and 
which by its greater moral and physical power will 
be better able to combat with the many difficulties 
which arise from the conflicting interests of separate 
nations, I enter upon the duties of tlie office to which 
I have been chosen, with the hope that the begin- 
ning of our career as a confederacy may not be 



138 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

obstructed bj hostile opposition to our enjoyment of 
the separate existence and independence which we 
have asserted, and which, with the blessing of 
Providence, we intend to maintain. 

Oar present condition, achieved in a manner 
unprecedented in the history of nations, illustrates 
the American idea that governments rest upon the 
consent of the governed, and that it is the right of 
the people to alter and abolish governments when- 
ever they become destructive to the ends for which 
they were established. The declared compact of the 
Union from which we have withdrawn was to estab- 
lish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for 
the common defence, promote the general welfare, 
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
and our posterity ; and when in the judgment of 
the sovereign States now composing this Confed- 
eracy, it has been perverted from the purposes for 
which it was ordained, and ceased to answer the 
ends for w^hich it was established, a peaceful appeal 
to the ballot-box declared that, so far as they were 
concerned, the government created by that compact 
should cease to exist. In this they merely asserted 
the right which the Declaration of Independence 
of IT's'G defined to be inalienable. Of the time and 
occasion of its exercise they as sovereigns were the 
final judges, each for itself. The impartial, enlight- 



rNAUGTJKAL ADDRESS OF JEFFEBSON DAVIS. 139 

ened verdict of mankind will vindicate the rectitude 
of our conduct ; and He who knows the hearts of 
men will judge of the sincerity with which we 
labored to preserve the government of our fathers in 
in its spirit. 

The right solemnly proclaimed at the birth of the 
States, and which has been affirmed and reaffirmed 
in the bills of rights of the States subsequently 
admitted into the Uijion of 1789, undeniably recog- 
nizes in the people the power to resume the authority 
delegated for the purposes of government. Thus 
the sovereign States here represented, proceeded to 
form this Confederacy ; and it is by the abuse of 
language that their act has been denominated 
revolution. They formed a new alliance, but within 
each State its government has remained. The rights 
of person and property have not been disturbed. 
The agent through whom they communicated with 
foreign nations is changed, but this does not neces- 
sarily interrupt their international relations. Sus- 
tained by the consciousness that the transition from 
the former Union to the present Confederacy has not 
proceeded from a disregard on our part of our just 
obligations or any failure to perform every constitu- 
tional duty, moved by no interest or passion to 
invade the rights of others, anxious to cultivate 
peace and commerce with all nations, if we may not 



140 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

hope to avoid war, we may at least expect that 
posterity will acquit us of having needlessly 
engaged in it. Doubly justified by the absence 
of wrong on our part, and by wanton aggression on 
the part of others, there can be no cause to doubt 
the courage and patriotism of the people of the 
Confederate States will be found equal to any 
measures of defence which soon their security may 
require. 

An agricultural people, whose chief interest is 
the export of a commodity required in every manu- 
facturing country, our true policy is peace, and the 
freest trade which our necessities will permit. It 
is alike our interest and that of all those to whom 
we would sell and from whom we would buy, that 
there should be the fewest practicable restrictions 
upon the interchange of commodities. There can be 
but little rivalry between ours and any manufactur- 
ing or navigating community, such as the north- 
eastern States of the American Union. It must 
follow, therefore, that mutual interest would invite 
good will and kind offices. If, however, passion or 
lust of dominion should cloud the judgment or 
inflame the ambition of those States, we must 
prepare to meet the emergency and maintain by the 
final arbitrament of the sword the position which we 
have assumed among the nations of the earth. 



INAUGUEAL ADDRESS OF JEFFEKSON DAVIS. 141 

"We have entered upon a career of independence, 
and it must be inflexibly pursued through many 
years of controversy with our late associates of the 
IS'orthern States. We have vainly endeavored to 
secure tranquillity and obtain respect for the rights 
to which we were entitled. As a necessity, not a 
choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation, 
and henceforth our energies must be directed to the 
conduct of our own affairs, and the per^Dctuity of the 
confederacy which we have formed. If a just per- 
'ception of mutual interest shall permit us peaceably 
to pursue our separate political career, my most 
earnest desire will have been fulfilled. But if this 
be denied us, and the integrity of our territory and 
jurisdiction be assailed, it will but remain for us 
with firm resolve to appeal to arms and invoke the 
blessing of Providence on a just cause. 

As a consequence of our new condition, and with 
a view to meet anticipated wants, it will be necessary 
to provide a speedy and efiicient organization of the 
branches of the Executive department having special 
charge of foreign intercourse, finance, military 
affairs, and postal service. For purposes of defence 
the Confederate States may, under ordinary circum- 
stances, rely mainly upon their militia; but it is 
deemed advisable in the present condition of affairs, 
that there should be a well instructed, disciplined 



142 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

army, more numerous than would usually be required 
on a peace establishment. I also suggest that, for 
the protection of our harbors and commerce on the 
high seas, a navy adapted to those objects will be 
required. These necessities have, doubtless, engaged 
the attention of Congress. 

With a Constitution differing only from that 
of our fathers in so far as it is explanatory of their 
well known intent, freed from sectional conflicts, 
which have interfered with the pursuit of the general 
welfare, it is not unreasonable to expect that the 
States from which we have recently parted may 
seek to unite their fortunes to ours, under the gov- 
enment which we have instituted. For this your 
Constitution makes adequate provision, but beyond 
this, if I mistake not, the judgment and will of the 
people are, that union with the States from which 
they have separated is neither practicable nor 
desirable. To increase the power, develop the 
resources, and promote the happiness of the Con- 
federacy, it is requisite there should be so much 
homogeneity that the welfare of every portion would 
be the aim of the whole. Where this does not exist 
antagonisms are engendered which must and should 
result in separation. 

Actuated solely by a desire to preserve our own 
rights, and to promote our own welfare, the separa- 



ESrATTGUKAL ADDRESS OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 143 

tion of the Confederate States has been marked by 
no aggression upon others, and followed by no 
domestic convulsion. Our industrial pursuits have 
received no check, the cultivation of our fields pro- 
gresses as heretofore, and even should we be involved 
in war there would be no considerable diminution in 
the production of tlie staples which have constituted 
our exports, in which the commercial world has an 
interest scarcely less than our own. This common 
interest of producer and consumer can only be inter- 
cepted by an exterior force which should obstruct 
its transmission to foreign markets, a course of con- 
duct which would be detrimental to manufacturing 
and commercial interests abroad. 

Should reason guide the action of the govern- 
ment from which we have separated, a policy so 
detrimental to the civilized world, the Northern 
States included, could not be dictated by even a 
stronger desire to inflict injury upon us ; but if it be 
otherwise, a terrible responsibility will rest upon it, 
and the suffering of millions will bear testimony 
to the folly and wickedness of our aggressors. lu 
the meantime there will remain to us, besides the 
ordinary remedies before suggested, the well known 
resources for retaliation upon the commerce of an 
enemy. 

Experience in public stations of a subordinate 



144 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

grade to tliis which your kindness has conferred, has 
taught me that care and toil and disappointments 
are the price of official elevation. You will see 
many errors to forgive, many deficiencies to tolerate ; 
but you shall not find in me either want of zeal 
or fidelity to the cause that is to me the highest in 
hope and of most enduring affection. Your gener- 
osity has bestowed upon me an undeserved 
distinction, one which I neither sought nor desired. 
Upon the continuance of that sentiment, and upon 
your wisdom and patriotism, I rely to direct and 
support me in the performance of the duties required 
at my hands. 

We have changed the constituent parts but not 
the system of our government. The Constitution 
formed by our fathers is that of these Confederate 
States. In their exposition of it, and in the judicial 
construction it has received, we have a light which 
reveals its true meaning. Thus instructed as to the 
just interpretation of that instrument, and ever 
remembering that all offices are biit trusts held for 
the people, and that delegated powers are to be 
strictly construed, I will hope by due diligence in the 
performance of my duties, though I may disappoint 
your expectation, yet to retain, when retiring, some- 
thing of the good will and confidence which will 
welcome my entrance into office. 



INAUGUEAL ADDRESS OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 145 

It is joyous in the midst of perilous times to look 
around upon a people united in heart, Avhen one 
purpose of high resolve animates and actuates the 
whole, where the sacrifices to be made are not 
weii^hed in the balance, against honor, right, liberty, 
and equality. Obstacles may retard, but they cannot 
long prevent the progress of a movement sanctioned 
by its justice and sustained by a virtuous people. 
Keverently let us invoke the God of our fathers to 
guide and protect us in our efforts to perpetuate the 
principles which by his blessing they were able to 
vindicate, establish, and transmit to their posterity ; 
and with a continuance of His favor ever gratefully 
acknowledged, we may hopefully look forward to 
success, to peace, to prosperity. 



146 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 



SPEECH OF PKESIDENT DAYIS, 

AT EICHMOND, JUNE IST, 1861. 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens: I thank you 
for the compliment your presence conveys. It is an 
indication of regard, not for the person, but for the 
position which he holds. The cause in which we 
are engaged is the cause of the advocacy of rights to 
which we were born, those for which our fathers of 
the Revolution bled — the richest inheritance that 
ever fell to man, and which it is our sacred duty to 
transmit to our children. 

Upon us is devolved the high and holy responsi- 
bility of preserving the constitutional liberty of a 
free government. Those with whom we have lately 
associated have shown themselves so incapable of 
appreciating the blessings of the glorious institutions 
they inherited, that they are to-day stripped of the 
liberty to which they were born. They have 
allowed an ignorant usurper to trample upon aU the 



SPEECH OF PEESIDKNT DAVIS. 147 

prerogatives of citizenship, and to exercifte powers 
never delegated to him ; and it has been reserved to 
your own State, so lately one of the original thirteen, 
but, now, thank God, fully separated from them, to 
become the theatre of a great central camp, from 
which will pour forth thousands of brave hearts to 
roll back the tide of this despotism. 

Apart from that gratification we majMvell feel at 
being separated from such a connection, is the pride 
that upon you devolves the task of maintaining and 
defendino; our new Government. I believe that we 
shall be able to achieve this noble work, and that the 
institutions of our fathers will go to our children as 
safely as they have descended to us. 

In these Confederate States we observe those 
relations which have been poetically ascribed to the 
United States, but which never there had the same 
reality — States so distinct that each existed as a 
Sovereign, yet so united that each was wound with 
the other to constitute a whole ; or, as more beauti- 
fully expressed, " Distinct as the billows, yet one as 
the sea." 

Upon every hill which now overlooks Eichmond 
you have had, and will continue to have, camps 
containing soldiers from every State in the Con- 
federacy ; and to its remotest limits every proud 
heart beats high with indignation at the thought 



148 - ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

that the foot of the invader has been set upon 
the soil of old Yirginia. There is not one true 
son of the South who is not ready to shoulder 
his musket, to bleed, to die, or to conquer in the 
cause of liberty here. 

Beginning under many embarrassments, the 
result of seventy years taxation being in the hands 
of our enemies, we must at iirst move cautiously. 
It may be that we shall have to encounter sacrifices ; 
but, my friends, under the smiles of the God of the 
Just, and filled with the same spirit that animated 
our fathers, success shall perch on our banners. I 
am sure you do not expect me to go into any argu- 
ment upon those questions which, for twenty-five 
years, have agitated the country. "We have now 
reached the points where, arguments being 
exhausted, it only remains for us to stand by our 
weapons. 

"When the time and occasion servie, we shall 
smite the smiter with manly arms, as did our fathers 
before us, and as becomes their sons. To the enemy 
we leave the base acts of the assassin and incendiary, 
to them we leave it to insult helpless women ; to us 
belongs vengeance upon man. 

Now, my friends, I thank you again for this 
gratifying manifestation. (A voice. " Tell us some 
thing of Buena Yista.") 



SPEECH OF PRESIDENT DAVIS. 149 

Well, iny friends, I can only say we will make 
the battle fields in Virginia another Buena Yista, 
and drench with blood more precious than that 
which flowed there. We will make a history for 
ourselves. AYe do not ask that the past shall shed 
our lustre upon us, bright as our past has been, for 
we can achieve our own destiny. 

We may point to many a field, over which has 
floated the flag of our country when we were of the 
United States — upon which Southern soldiers and 
Southern ofiicers reflected their brave spirits in their 
deeds of daring ; and without intending to cast a 
shadow upon the courage of any portion of the 
United States, let me call it to your remembrance, 
that no man who went from these Confederate 
States has ever yet, as a general oflicer, surrendered 
to an enemy. 

Pardon me if I do not go into matters of history, 
and permit me, again, to thank you for this kind 
manifestation of your regard, to express to you my 
hearty wishes for the individual prosperity of you 
all, with the hope that you will all pray to God to 
crown our cause and our country with success. 

He then retired from the windows amid pro- 
longed cheers. 

Calls were then made for ex-Governor Wise, to 
which, after a short delay, he responded as follows : 



150 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 



SPEECH OF EX-GOVEENOE HENET A. WISE. 

My Fkiends : Tou all know that I am a civil 
soldier only, and that in that capacity I was nearly 
worn down in the siege of the Yirginia Convention. 
Thank God, however, that with a little rest, some 
help, and some damage, from the doctors, I have 
been enabled to recruit my exhausted energies. 

The time of deliberation has given place to the 
time of action, and I have taken up my bed as au 
individual, in common with others, to march to 
Richmond to meet the President of our now separate 
and independent republic. I am ready to obey his 
orders, not only with pride, pleasure, and devotion 
to the cause, and respect to the office he fills, but 
with respect to the man himself as one who has our 
fullest confidence. 

You have to meet a foe with whom you could 
not live in peace. Your political powers and rights, 
which were enthroned in that Capitol when you 



SPEECH OF EX-GOYEKNOR HENET A. WISE. 151 

were united with tliem under the old constitutional 
bond of the Confederacy, have been annihilated. 
They have undertaken to annul laws within your 
own limits that would render your property unsafe 
within those limits. They have abolitionized your 
border, as the disgraced IS'orth-west will show. 
They have invaded your moral strongholds and the 
rights of your religion, and have undertaken to 
teach you what should be the moral duties of men. 

They have invaded the sanctity of your homes 
and firesides, and endeavored to play master, father, 
and husband for you in your households ; in a word, 
they would set themselves up as a petty Providencee 
by which you are in all things to be guided and con- 
trolled. But you have always declared that you 
would not be subject to this invasion of your rights. 

Though war was demanded, it was not for you to 
declare war. But now that the armies of the 
invader are hovering around the tomb of "Washing- 
ton, where is the Yirginian heart that does not beat 
with a quicker pulsation at this last and boldest 
desecration of his beloved State ? Their hordes are 
already approaching our metropolis, and extending 
their folds around our State as does the anaconda 
around his victba. The call is for action. 

I rejoice in this war. "Who is there that now 
dares to put on sanctity to depreciate war, or the 



152 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

"horrid glories of war." l^one. Why? Because 
it is a war of purification. Yon want war, fire, 
blood, to purify you ; and the Lord of Hosts has 
demanded that yon should walk through fire and 
blood. You are called to the fiery baptism, and I 
call upon yon to come up to the altar. Though your 
pathway be through fire, or through a river of blood, 
turn not aside. Be in no hurry — no hurry and flurry. 
Collect yourselves, summon yourselves, elevate 
yourselves to the high and sacred duty of patriotism. 
The man who dares to pray, the man who dares to 
wait until some magic arm is put into his hand ; the 
man who will not go unless he have a Minie, or 
percussion musket, who will not be content with 
flint and steel, or even a gun without a lock, is 
worse than a coward — he is a renegade. If he can 
do no better, go to a blacksmith, take a gun along 
as a sample, and get him to make you one like it. 
Get a spear — a lance. Take a lesson from John 
Brown. Manufacture your blades from old iron, 
even though it be the tires of your cart-wheels. Get 
a bit of carriage spring, and grind and burnish it in 
the shape of a bowie knife, and put it to any sort of 
a handle, so that it be strong — ash, hickory, oak. 
But, if possible, get a double-barrelled gun and a 
dozen rounds of buckshot, and go upon the battle- 
field with these. 



SPEECH OF .EX-GOVEBNOR HENJRT A. WISE. 153 

If their guns reach further than yours, reduce the 
distance ; meet them foot to foot, eye to eye, body to 
body, and when 3''ou strike a blow, strike home. 
Your true-blooded Yankee will never stand still in 
the face of cold steel. Let your aim, therefore, be to 
get into close quarters, and with a few decided, vig- 
orous movements, always pushing forward, never 
back, my word for it, the soil of Virginia will be 
swept of the Yandals who are now polluting its 
atmosphere. 

The band then struck up " Dixie," which was 
followed by ^' We may be Ha^Dpy yet." 



7* 



154 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 



PEOOLAMATIO]^ BY JEFFEESON DAYIS, 

GRANTING LETTERS OF MARQUE. 

Whereas^ Abraham Lincoln, the Preside] jt of 
the United States, has, by proclamation, announced 
the intention of invading this Confederacy with an 
armed force, for the purpose of capturing its for- 
tresses, and thereby subverting its independence, and 
subjecting the free people thereof to the dominion 
of a foreign power ; and whereas it has thus become 
the duty of this Government to repel the threatened 
invasion, and to defend the rights and liberties of 
the people by all the means which the law^s of 
nations and the usages of civilized warfare place at 
its disposal ; 

ITow, therefore, I, Jeffeeson Davis, President 
of the Confederate States of America^ do issue this 
my Proclamation, inviting all those who may desire, 
by service in private armed vessels on the high seas, 
to aid this Government in resisting so wanton and 



PKOCLA]^IATION BY JEFFERSON DAVIS. 155 

wicked an aggression, to make application for coni- 
missicns or Letters of Marque and Reprisal, to be 
issued under the seal of these Confederate States. 

And I do further notify all persons applying for 
Letters of Marque, to make a statement in writing, 
giving the name and a suitable description of the 
character, tonnage, and force of the vessel, and the 
name and place of residence of each owner concerned 
therein, and the intended number of the crew, and 
to sign said statement and deliver the same to the 
Secretary of State, or to the Collector of any port of 
entry of these Confederate States, to be by him trans- 
mitted to the Secretary of State. 

And I do further notify all applicants aforesaid 
that before any commission or Letter of Marque is 
issued to any vessel, the owner or owners thereof, 
and the commander for the time being, will be re- 
quired to give bonds to the Confederate States, with 
at least two responsible sureties, not interested in 
such vessel, in the penal sum of five thousand dollars ; 
or if such vessel be provided with more than one 
hundred and fifty men, then in the penal sum of ten 
thousand dollars, with condition that the owners, 
. ofiicers and crew who shall be employed on board 
such commissioned vessels shall observe the laws of 
these Confederate States and the instructions given 
to them for the regulation of their conduct. That 



156 ECHOES FTIOM THE SOUTH. 

tliey shall satisfy all damages done contrary to tlie 
tenor thereof bj such vessel during her commission, 
and deliver up the same when revoked by the Presi- 
dent of the Confederate States. 

And I do further specially enjoin on all persons 
holding offices, civil and military, under the authority 
of the Confederate States, that they be vigilant and 
zealous in discharging the duties incident thereto ; 
and I do, moreover, solemnly exhort the good people 
of these Confederate States, as they love their country, 
as they prize the blessings of free government, as 
they feel the wrongs of the past and these now 
threatened in aggravated form by those whose 
enmit}^ is more implacable because unprovoked, that 
they exert themselves in preserving order, in promot- 
ing concord, in maintaining the authority and 
efficacy of the laws, and in supporting and invigor- 
ating all the measures which may be adopted for the 
common defence, and by which, under the blessings 
of Divine Providence, we may hope for a speedy, 
just, and honorable peace. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, 
and caused the seal of the Confederate States to 
be affixed, this severdeenth day of April, 1861. 
By the President, 

(Signed) Jeffeeson Davis. 

E.. Toombs, Secretary of State. 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 157 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS, 

AT ATLANTA, GA., APEIL 30, 1861. 

My Fellow-Citizens ; — I think the country may 
be considered safe, since your interest in its welfare 
has brought you out at this hour of tlie night. I 
have just returned from a mission to old Yirginia. 
It will be gratifying to you, I know, to state tliat she 
is not only out of the Union, but she is a member of 
the Southern Confederacy, and has sent delegates to 
OUT Congress, now asserahled. l^orth Carolina will 
have her delegates with us, also, in a few days. Her 
Legislature meets to-morrow, and I doubt not she 
will he out of the Union hefore Saturday night. 
The fires which first kindled the old Mecklenburgh 
Declaration of Independence are again burning 
throughout all her domains. From all that we have 
learned in the last few days, Tennessee will soon put 
herself on the side of the South, and be a new star 
in our shining galaxy. The news is also good from 



158 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

Kentucky, thougli I have nothing official from there. 
A few of her public men are trying to put the brakes 
down on her people ; but they seem unwilling to 
submit any longer. From Missouri the news is most 
cheering, and Arkansas will soon be with us. 

But the best of all is, that Maryland — gallant 
little Maryland — right under the guns of Lincoln 
and the threats of Blair, to make it a Free State, if 
the blood of the last white man has to be shed in 
accomplishing it — has resolved^ to a man^ to stand ly 
the South ! She wilkbe arrayed against Abolition- 
dom, and cling to the South ; and if she has not 
delegates with us now, she is in open defiance of 
Lincoln and his Government, and will soon be with 
us, even by revolution. The cause of Baltimore is 
the cause of us all, from the Atlantic to the Rio 
Grande. Her hands must be held up, and triumph 
must be assured to her. 

You have probably seen it stated that overtures 
of peace had been made by Lord Lyons, and, per- 
haps, by other parties. I tell you it is not true, and 
is only intended to deceive you. It is also said that 
the Lincoln Government has done so. This may be 
true ; but if it is, it is all for treachery, as they gave 
traitorous assurances to our Commissioners at Wash- 
ington. For weeks they were kept there under the 
most positive assurances of a pacific policy and 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 159 

intentions towards us — all with the basest motives 
that can actuate a treacherous heart. If peace 
propositions are made bj them now, I conjure you 
not to trust them for a single moment — they only 
intend to deceive and betray — to lull your energies 
and suspicions, till they secure some cowardly 
advantage. 

Our enemies say that they only want to protect 
the public property ; and yet I have it frbm unques- 
tioned authority that they have mined all the public 
buildings in Washington — the Capitol and all the 
other Departments — for the purpose of destroying 
them. They have called out 75,000 men, they say 
to protect the public property now in their posses- 
sion, and to retake and protect that which they have 
been forced to give up ; yet, wherever they are now, 
they have prepared to destroy the property, and 
have destroyed, or attempted to destroy, all that we 
have compelled them to relinquish, because of their 
intentions to use it for the purpose of subjugating us. 
Sumter was mined to be blown up on leaving it. 
Much of the property was burned up at Harper's 
Ferry, in hastily vacating that place ; and an attempt 
was made to burn up not only all the public prop- 
erty on leaving Gosport E^avy Yard, but the whole 
city of Norfolk. This is one of the most remarkable 
instances on record where Providence was on our 



160 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

side. Plans were laid to burn up the !N"avy Yard 
and the whole city. The incendiary fires were 
lighted ; and, if their intentions had succeeded, such 
a conflagration had never been witnessed on this 
continent, and would have been second only to the 
burning of Moscow ; but, just at the critical moment, 
before the ravages had extended, the wind turned ! 
The winds of Heaven turned, and stayed the spread 
of the devouring element. The same wind that kind 
Heaven sent to keep off the fleet at Charleston till 
Sumter was reduced, came to the relief of Norfolk at 
the critical moment. Providence was signally on 
our side. They attempted to blow up the Dock, the 
most expensive one on the continent — but there was 
a break in the train they had laid, and it failed. 
They attempted to burn down the old Pennsylvania, 
Germantown^ and the Iferrimac. They set the 
match, while they endeavored to get out of the way 
of their intended destruction ; but the vessels sunk 
before the fire caught — another remarkable instance 
of the interposition of Providence on our behalf, and 
the strongest evidence of our rectitude. We were 
right at first, are right now, and shall keep ourselves 
right to the end. 

"What is to take place before the end I know not. 
A threatening war is upon us, made by those who 
have no regard for right 1 We fight for our homes, 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 161 

onr fatliers and mothers, our wives, brothers, sisters, 
sons, and daugliters, and neighbors! They for 
MONEY ! The hirelings and mercenaries of the Xorth 
are all hand to hand against you. 

As I told jou when I addressed you a few days 
ago, Lincoln may bring his seventy-five thousand 
soldiers against us; but seven times seventy-five 
thousand men can never conquer us. We have now 
Maryland and Yirginia, and all the Border States 
with us. "We have ten millions of people with us, 
heart and hard, to defend us to the death. We can 
call out a inillion of jpeojple^ if need he / and when 
they are cut down^ we can call out another^ and^ still 
another^ until the last man of the South finds a 
bloody grave, rather than submit to their foul dicta- 
tion. But a triumphant victory and independence, 
with an unparalled career of glory, prosperity and 
progress awaits us in the future. God is on our side^ 
and who shall he against us? E'one but His omnip- 
otent hand can defeat us in this struggle. 

A general opinion prevails that Washington city 
is soon to be attacked. On this subject I can only 
say, our object is peace. We wish no aggressions on 
any one's rights, and will make none. But if 
Maryland secedes^ the District of Columbia will fall 
to her by reversionary right — the same as Sumter to 
South Carolina, Pulaski to Georgia, and Pickens to 



162 ECHOES FEOM THE SOTJTH. 

Alabama. When we Lave the right we will demand 
the surrender of Washington, just as we did in the 
other cases, and will enforce our demands at every 
hazard and at whatever cost. And here let me say 
that our policy and conduct from the first have been 
right, and shall be to the last. I glory in this con- 
sciousness of our rectitude. 

It may be that " whom the gods would destroy, 
they first make mad." But for Lincoln's wicked 
and foolish war proclamation, the border States — 
some of them at least, would still have lingered in 
the hope that the Administration and its designs 
were not so basely treacherous as that document has 
shown them to be. Tennessee and other States 
would have lingered for some time. E"ow, all the 
slave States are casting in their lot with us, and 
linking their destinies with ours. We might afford 
to thank Lincoln a little for showing his hand. It 
may be that soon the Confederate flag with fifteen 
stars will be hoisted upon the dome of the ancient 
Capitol. If so, God's will be done, is my prayer. 
Let us do notliing that is wrong. Let us commit our 
cause into His hand — perform our whole duty, and 
trust in Him for the crowning results. 

I have many things I would like to say to you, 
but my strength will not admit, even if it were 
necessary for your encouragement — but it is not. I 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STErHENS. 1G3 

■find that joii are fully up to the music, that you 
thoroughly comprehend oiir condition, and are 
resolved to do your whole duty. I find our people 
everywhere are alive to their interests and their duty 
in this crisis. Such a degree of popular enthusiasm 
was never before seen in this country. 1 find my 
fellow-citizens all along the railroad line eager to 
hear the news, and to speed our glorious cause with 
their services. This is the fifth speech which I have 
made since I left home this evening at 5 o'clock. 
In my town, yesterday, a meeting was held, a com- 
pany was organized, and their services tendered to 
our government. A flag was made in two hours by 
our patriotic ladies and presented to the company, 
and §2,200 was raised to equip the company and 
take care of the needy families of soldiers who may 
go off to fight for their country. 

My friends, forget not the soldier ! Send him 
contributions to make him comfortable while he is in 
the service. Take care of his family while he is 
absent. Employ your hands and your substance in 
doing works of charity in this day of your country's 
trial. If any should fall in the battle, remember the 
orphan and the widow, and take care of them. God 
will bless you in the noble performances of a patri- 
otic duty. 

My fellow-citizens, I must close these remarks. 



164 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

I am gratified to meet you to-niglit. I am gratified 
that Georgia and all the South is a unit. I rejoice 
to be able to tell you the welcome news that 
Virginia is a unit, l^early every single member 
of her Convention will sign tlie Ordinance of Seces- 
sion. And now, with my best wishes, I bid you 
good-night. 

His speech was rapturously applauded through- 
out ; and, as he retired, three cheers for Stephens 
were given with a will. 

In a few moments, in response to earnest solicita- 
tions, he again came on the platform, and said : 

The news from Washington is very intei'estiug. 
It has been stated in the newspapers — first, that the 
Virginia troops had occupied Arlington Heights, 
just across the Potomac from the President's house ; 
and again, that Lincoln's troops had occupied tliat 
point. My information is that both these statements 
are incorrect. Lincoln, however, has occupied 
Georgetown Heights. He has from fifteen to t^\^nty 
thousand soldiers stationed in and about Washington. 
Troops are quartered in the Capitol, who are defac- 
ing its walls and ornaments with grease and filth, 
like a set of vandal hordes. The new Senate cham- 
ber has been converted into a kitchen and quarters 
— cooking and sleeping apparatus have actually 
been erected and placed in that elegant apartment. 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 1G5 

The Patent Office is converted into soldiers' barracks, 
and is ruined with their tilth. The Post-0 fficc 
Department is made a storehouse for barrels of Hour 
and bacon. All the departments are appropriated 
to base uses, and despoiled of their beauty by those 
treacherous, destructive enemies of our country. 
Their filthy spoliatious of the public buildings, and 
works of art at the Capital, and their preparations 
to destroy them, are strong evidence to my mind 
that they do not intend to hold or defend the place ; 
but to abandon it, after having despoiled and laid it 
in ruins. Let them destroy it — savage-like — if they 
will. We will rebuild it. Phoenix-like, new and 
more substantial structures will rise from its ashes. 
Planted anew, under the auspices of our superior 
institutions, it will live and flourish throughout 
all ages. 



166 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 



SPEECH OF J. M. MASON. 

AT EIOHMOND, VA., JUNE 8, 1861. 
SOLDIEES OF THE MaKYLAOTD LiNE I I aill 

deputed to do a most grateful duty ; first, in the 
name of Yirginia, to give you an earnest and cordial 
welcome to the " Old Dominion ; " and next, to 
present to you, in behalf of the ladies of Maryland, 
this flag. I see, soldiers of Maryland, that you are 
" rough and ready " — the highest honor of a soldier 
in revolutionary times. We all know who you are. 
"We all know what brought you here, and we are 
all ready, as I trust you have experienced, to 
extend to you a soldier's welcome — the only wel- 
come, indeed, that can be extended in times like 
these. Your own honored State is with us heart 
irand soul in this great controversy. By your enter- 
prise, your bravery, and your determined will, you 
have escaped from the thraldom of tyranny which 
envelopes that State ; and you know, I know — for I 



SPEECH OF J. M. MASON. 1G7 

have been among its people — we all know, that the 
same spirit which brought you here, actuates thou- 
sands who remain at home. (Applause.) I wel- 
come jou, soldiers of Maryland, upon the threshold 
of the second great war of independence — a war 
that will be transmitted by history to the future as 
the greatest of two wars of independence ; a war 
that is waged against the South with less provoca- 
tion, less reason, less regard to humanity and honor, 
than was that waged by the mother country in 1776. 
Your presence here is proof that you participate 
in this sentiment. And I tell you further, my coun- 
trymen, in view of these circumstances, there is not 
a man among you who will dare to return to Mary- 
land with that flag dishonored. ISTot one. I tell 
you further, there is not a man among you who will 
dare to return to Maryland except as a soldier in 
victory. Do you ask me why ? Because we are 
engaged in a great and holy war of self-defence. In 
after ages, when history l-ecords the transactions of 
this epoch — when the passions of men shall have 
subsided, and the historian can take a calm and 
philosophical view of the events which have led to 
the present collision between the two sections, he 
will write that the people of the Southern States 
understood and protected civil liberty, and that the 
misguided North either did not comprehend, or 



168 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

abandoned it ? For what have we witnessed ? The' 
Bpectacle of the Chief Justice of the United States, 
the man who stands at the head of the principal 
department of the Federal Government — the man 
who has illustrated in his life, for more than four 
generations, all that adorns honor, virtue, and 
patriotism — a native born citizen of your own State 
of Maryland — Roger B. Taney — that man has put 
the judicial fiat of condemnation upon the Govern- 
ment of the United States for its shameless abandon- 
ment of the very corner stone of our liberties. A 
native Marylander, he remains at home to defend 
the last refuge of civil liberty against the atrocious 
aggressions of a remorseless tyranny. I honor him 
for it ; the world will honor him, posterity will 
honor him ; and there will be inscribed upon his 
monument the highest tribute ever paid to a man. 
He has stood bravely in the breach, and interposed 
the unspotted arm of justice between the rights of 
the South and the malignant usurpation of power by 
the ]^orth. There he still remains, " a cloud by day 
and a pillar of fire by night," to direct the welfare 
of our nation in this atrocious aggression upon our 
liberty. 

E'ow, my countrymen, why are you here? 
What has brought you across the border ? What is 
your mission to Yirginia ? You tell your own tale. 



SPEECH OF J. M. MASON. 1G9 

You have arras in your hands ; you are under a gal- 
lant leader, and you are to march under a flag 
honored by the ladies of your own State, worked by 
their own fair hands. You are here not merely to 
figlit our battles. 'No, I am not so selfish as to 
presume that ; but to fight the battles of civil liberty 
in behalf of the entire South. You are on a high 
mission. 

You are not the first Marylanders who Iiave 
crossed the border. We had, in the days of the first 
devolution, a Maryland line, whose name has passed 
into history without one blot upon its fair escutcheon 
— a Maryland line who illustrated upon every field 
in the South their devotion to the civil liberty of 
that day — a Maryland line, who, in tlie remote 
savannahs of the Carolinas, spilled their blood like 
water at Camden, at Guilford Court House, at the 
Cowpens, and at Eutaw, where the last battle was 
fought, and the enemy finally surrendered. They 
were your ancestry. They travelled barefooted, 
unclothed, without blankets or tents, and but few 
muskets, and you came after them. But you have 
this peculiar distinction : You are volunteers in a 
double sense — you are volunteers for the war, and 
you are volunteers for the great caust\ of the South 
against the aggressions of the North. You are no 
strangers ; you are our neighbors. My own hom 3 



170 ECHOES FJROM THE SOUTH. 

is upon the confines of your State. I went there, 
four weeks ago, immediately after Yirginia had 
denounced the unholy movements in the ]S"orth, to 
learn the spirit of your people. I went to Freder- 
ickstown, where the Legislature were assembled, 
anxious to ascertain whether Yirginia could rely 
upon you in the hour of trial. I knew the political 
incubus by which your people were crushed to the 
earth ; but such were the indications I perceived on 
every side, that when I returned to Yirginia I 
unhesitatingly reported that Maryland is with the 
South. I staked my word upon it as a man of prin- 
ciple and a man of truth. The giant arm . of the 
oppressor has been too strong for the time being, but 
the spirit is still alive, unsubdued and unrepressed. 
You are here to confirm this fact by your presence. 

You are in E-ichmond. AVhat is Richmond ? It 
is a large city — a city of gallant men and refined 
women ; a city whose inhabitants are engaged in all 
the useful and honorable pursuits of life tending to 
the advance of civilization and prosperity. At the 
present moment, however, Richmond is a huge 
camp, where but one mind, one heart, and one deter- 
mination animates every occupant, man, woman, 
and child. (Applause.) Our wives, mothers — and 
I appeal to the ladies, if I may not also say our 
sweethearts — have entered into it with a zest, which 



SPEECH OF J. M. MASON. 171 

shows that their hearts and affections are fully in 
the work. You will have no child's j)laj. There is 
no time now for vain boasting. I confide as much 
as I can in the prowess of the men of this section, 
and you will be false to the fame of your fathers if 
you are not victors ; but your enemies relies upon 
mere brute force. There are doubtless brave 
soldiers among them whom it will be bard to con- 
quer, but you will remember that you are fighting 
for your fathers, mothers, and firesides. They are 
mercenaries fighting for pay, you are men fighting 
for your homes and rights. All you require is 
subsistence. " Give us," you say, " the means of 
living, the arms to fight with, and show us the 
enemy." (Applause.) It may be, that in the provi- 
dences of war, not one among all those who are 
before me will return. You may come here, if 
necessary, to lay your lives upon the altar of your 
country, and I feel assured that every man will do 
his duty. 

I will tell you an incident connected with the 
Alabama troops. They w^ere attended by a minister 
of the Gospel, who was a guest at my house. He 
told me that he had with him a purse of gold, which 
had been given to him by the parents of two young 
men in the ranks, with injunction that it should be 
sacredly preserved during the war, unless his sons 



172 ECHOES FBOM THE SOUTH. 

should fall upon the field of battle. Then, said the 
father, " Give them a Christian burial." There was 
a patriot father, who had devoted his sons to the 
service of his country, and that man does not stand 
alone. 

Such is the object with which you have engaged 
in this war. The true duty of the soldier is not 
merely to fight a battle or kill an enemy. He has 
also to endure the trials of the camp ; the weariness 
of the forced march ; the vigilance of day and night ; 
the restraints of discipline, and the 'patience to bear 
with discomforts and disappointments. This is the 
real test of courage, and he who comes out of the 
war with the reputation of having thus done his 
duty through the sunshine and through storm, is the 
true man, and the thorough soldier. 

But I will not detain you longer, except to dis 
charge the grateful duty which remains, of present- 
ing to you, in behalf of the ladies of Baltimore, this 
beautiful banner. There it is unfurled before you 
for the first time. There are emblazoned the fifteen 
stars of the Southern States, looking prospectively to 
the day when they will all be with us ! The star of 
Maryland is among them, and the women of your 
State have put it there, confiding it to your safe 
keeping. Look upon it as a sacred trust. In pass- 
ing through the storm of battle, it may be tattered 



SPEECH OF J. M. MASON. 173 

and soiled, but I believe I can say tliat you will 
bring it back without a spot of dishonor upon it. 
But you are not only to return that flag here — you 
are to take it back to Baltimore. (Cheers, and cries 
of " We will.") It came here in the hands of the 
fair lady who stands by my side, who brought it 
through the camp of the enemy, with a woman's 
fortitude, courage, and devotion to our cause ; and 
you are to take it back to Baltimore, unfurl it in 
your streets, and challenge the applause of your 
citizens. (Applause.) 



174 ECHOES FEOM THE SOrTH. 



SAM HOUSTON'S SPEECH, 

AT INDEPENDENCE, TEXAS, MAY 10. 

The troubles which have com© upon the commu- 
nity are neither unexpected to me, nor do I fail to 
realize all the terrible consequences yet to ensue. 
Since the passage of the ]N"ebraska and Xansas bill, 
I have had but little hope of the stability of our 
institutions. The advantages gained to the North 
by that measure, through the incentive to Anti- 
Slavery agitation and the opening of a vast territory 
to Free-Soil settlement, v^^ere such that I saw that 
the South would soon be overslaughed, and deprived 
of equality in the Government — a state of things 
which a chivalrous people like ours would not sub- 
mit to. Yet I fostered the longing hope that wlien 
the North saw the dangers of disunion, and beheld 
the resolute spirit with which our people met the 
issue, they would abandon their aggressive policy, 
,and allow the Government to be preserved and 



SAM Houston's speech. 175 

administered in the same spirit with which our fore- 
lathers created it. For this reason I was conserva- 
tive. So long as there was a hope of obtaining our 
rights, and maintaining our institutions, through an 
appeal to the sense and justice and the brotherhood 
of the ISTorthern people, I was for preserving the 
Union. The voice of hope was weeks since drowned 
bj the guns of Fort Sumter. It is not now heard 
above the tramp of invading armies. The mission 
of the Union has ceased to be one of peace and 
equality, and now the dire alternative of yielding 
tamely before hostile armies, or meeting the shock 
like freemen, is presented to the South. Sectional 
prejudices, sectional hate, sectional aggrandizement, 
and sectional pride, cloaked in the name of the Gov- 
ernment and Union, stimulate the [N'orth in prose- 
cuting this war. Thousands are duped into its 
sifpport by zeal for the Union, and reverence for its 
past associations; but the motives of the Administra- 
tion are too plain to be misunderstood, ^ 

The time has come when a man's section is his 
country. I stand by mine. All my hopes, my 
fortunes, are centred in the South, When T see the 
land for whose defence my blood has been spilt, and 
the people whose fortunes have been mine through a 
quarter of a century of toil, threatened with invasion, 
I can but cast my lot with theirs and await the issue. 



176 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

For years I have been denounced on account of 
my efforts to save the South from the consequences 
of the unhappy measures which have brought 
destruction upon the whole country. "When, in the 
face of almost my entire section, and a powerful 
JS'orthern strength, I opposed the Kansas and ISTe- 
braska bill, the bitterness of language was exhausted 
to decry and villify me. When I pictured the con- 
sequences of that measure, and foretold its effects, I 
was unheeded. Now, when every ]Srorthern man 
who supported that measure is demanding the subju- 
gation of the South, our people can see the real 
feelings which actuate them in supporting it. 
Devoted as I was to peace and to the Union, I have 
struggled against the realization even of my own 
prophecies. Every result I foresaw has already 
occurred. It was to bring peace and strength to the 
South. It has brought war, and spread free soil 
almost to the northern border of Texas. All we can 
now do is to stand firm by what we have, and be 
more wise in the future. 

The trouble is upon us ; and no matter how it 
came, or who brought it on, we have to meet it. 
Whether we have opposed this secession movement 
or favored it, we must alike meet the consequences. 
I sought calm and prudent action. I desired a 
united and prepared South, if we must leave the 



177 



Union. Entire cooperation may not now be possible, 
but we have ample strength for the struggle if we 
husband it ario;ht. "We must fo-ht now whether we 
are prepared or not. 

Mj position was taken months since. Though I 
opposed secession for the reasons mentioned, I saw 
that the policy of coercion could not be permitted. 
The attempt to stigmatize and crush out this revolu- 
tion, comprehending States and millions of people, 
as a rebellion, would show that the Administration 
at Washington did not comprehend the vast issues 
involved, or refused to listen to the dictates of reason, 
justice, and humanity. A stubborn resort to force 
when moderation was necessary, would destroy every 
hope of peace and the reconstruction of the Union. 
That my views on this point might not be misunder- 
stood, I sent to the Legislature, prior to the passage 
of the Secession Ordinance by the Convention, a 
message, in which I said : 

" Having called you together to provide for an 
expression of the sovereign will of the people at the 
ballot box, I also deem it my duty to declare that, 
while the people of the State of Texas are delibera- 
ting upon this question, no impending threats of 
coercion from the people of another State should be 
permitted to hang over them, without at least the 
condemnation of their representatives. Whatever 



178 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

that sovereign will may be when fairly expressed, it 
must be maintained. Texas, as a man, will defend 
■it. While the executive would not counsel foolish 
bravado, he deems it a duty we owe to the people, 
to declare that, even though their action shall bring 
upon us the consequences which now seem impend- 
ing, we shall all (be our views in the past and 
present what they may) be united." 

'Now that not only coercion, but a vindictive war 
is about to be inaugurated, I stand ready to redeem 
my pledge to the people. Whether the Convention 
acted right or wrong is not now the question. 
Whether I was treated justly or unjustly is not now 
to be considered. I put all that under my feet, and 
there it shall stay. Let those who have stood by me 
do the same, and let us show that at a time when 
peril environs our beloved land, we know how to be 
patriots and Texan s. 

Let us have no past, except the glorious past, 
whose heroic deeds shall stimulate us to resistance 
to oppression and wrong, and buryiug in the grave 
of oblivion all our past difficulties, let us go forward, 
determined not to yield from the position which the 
people have assumed until our independence is 
acknowledged, or if not acknowledged, wrung from 
our enemies by the force of our valor. It is no time 
to turn back now — the people have put their hands 



179 



to the plow ; tbej must go forward. To recede 
would be worse than ignominy. Better meet war in 
its deadliest shape than cringe before an enemy 
whose wrath we have invoked. I make no preten- 
sions as to myself. I have yielded up office and 
sought retirement to preserve peace among our 
people. My services, perhaps, are not important 
enough to be desired. Others are perhaps more com- 
petent to lead the people throngh this revolution. 
I have been with them throngh the fiery ordeal once, 
and I know that with prudence and discipline their 
courage will surmount all obstacles. Should the 
tocsin of war, calling forth the people to resist the 
invader, reach the retirement to which I shall go, I 
will heed neither the denunciations of my enemies, 
nor the charms of my own fireside, but will join the 
ranks of my countrymen to defend Texas once again. 
Then I will ask those who have pursued me with 
malignity, and who have denounced me as a traitor 
to Texas and the South, to prove themselves more 
true, when the battle shock shall come. Old and 
worn as I am, I shall not be laggard. Though 
others may lead, I shall not scorn to follow ; and 
though I may end life in the ranks, where I com- 
menced it, I shall feel that the post of duty is the 
post of honor. 

We have entered upon a conflict which will 



180 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

demand all the energies of the people. E'ot only 
must they be united, but all the heroic virtues which 
characterize a free people must be brought into 
requisition. There must be that sacrificing spirit of 
patriotism which will yield the private desires for 
the public good. There must be that fortitude 
which will anticipate occasional reverses as the 
natural consequences of war, and meet them with 
becoming pride and resignation ; but, above all, 
there must be discipline and subordination to law 
and order. Without this, armies will be raised in 
vain, and carnage will be wasted in hopeless enter- 
prises. The South, chivalric, brave, and impetuous 
as it is, must add to these attributes of success 
thorough discipline, or disaster will come upon the 
country. The Northern people by their nature and 
occupation are subordinate to orders. They are 
capable of great endurance and a high state of disci- 
pline. A good motto for a soldier is, IlTever under- 
rate the strength of your enemy. The South claims 
superiority over them in point of fearless courage. 
Equal them in point of discipline, and there will be 
no danger. Organize your forces; yield obedience 
to orders from headquarters. Do not waste jouv 
energies in unauthorized expeditions ; but in all 
things conform to law and order, and it will be ten 
times better than running hither and thither, spend- 



SAM houstoj^'s speech. 181 

ing money and time, without accomplishing any of 
the phms of a campaign which your leaders have 
marked out. Once organized, stay organized. 

Do not be making companies to-day and unmak- 
ing them to-morrow. If you are dissatisfied with 
your captain, wait until the battle day comes, and 
he gets killed off, then you can get another. It is 
better to fight up to him and get rid of him in that 
way than to split off, and make a new company to 
be split up in the same way. I give this advice as 
an old soldier. I know the value of subordination 
and discipline. A good citizen, who has been 
obedient to law and civil authority, always makes a 
good soldier. I have ever been conservative, was 
conservative as long as the Union lasted —am a con- 
servative citizen, of the Southern Confederacy, and 
giving to the constituted authorities of the country, 
civil and military, and the Government which a 
majority of the people have approved and acquiesced 
in, an honest obedience, I feel that I should do less 
than my duty did I not press upon others the 
importance of regarding this the first duty of a good 
citizen. 



182 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 



SPEECH OF HOWELL COBB, 

AT ATLANTA, GEORGIA, MAT 22. 

Fellow-Citizens: I feel that I cannot com- 
pensate you for the trouble you have taken to call 
me out. You, as citizens of Atlanta, know that 
there has Leen no instance of my being called upon, 
by you, in which I failed to respond, unless for the 
very good reason that I had nothing to say / and 
this evening I must offer this excuse for failing to 
address you at length. I presume that a curiosity to 
know what we have been doing in the Congress 
recently assembled at Montgomery, has induced you 
to make this call upon me. 

We have made all the necessary arrangements to 
meet the present crisis. Last night we adjourned to 
meet in Richmond on the 20th of July. I will tell 
you why we did this. The " Old Dominion," as 
fou know, has at last shaken off the bonds of 
Lincoln, and joined her noble Southern sisters. Her 



SPEECH OF HOWELL COBB. 183 

soil is to be. the battle ground, and her streams are 
to be dyed with Southern blood. We felt that her 
cause was our cause, and that if she fell we wanted 
to die with her. (Cheers.) We have sent our 
soldiers on to the posts of danger, and we wanted to 
be there to aid and counsel our brave " boys." In 
the progress of the war, further legislation may be 
necessary, and we will be there, that when the hour 
of danger comes, we may lay aside the robes of legis- 
lation, buckle on the armor of the soldier, and do 
battle beside the brave ones who have volunteered 
for the defence of our beloved South. (Loud 
cheers.) 

The people are coming up gallantly to the work. 
When the call was made for twelve months' volun- 
teers, thousands were offered ; but when it was 
changed to the full term of the war, the nuinbers 
increased ! The anxiety among our citizens is not 
as to who shall go to the wars, but wlio shall stay at 
home f No man in the whole Confederate States — 
the gray haired sire down to the beardless youtli — in 
whose veins was one drop of Southern blood, feared 
to plant his foot upon Yirginia's soil, and die fight- 
ing for our rights. 

In Congress, the other day, I told them that if no 
other arm was raised to defend Virginia, noble old 
Georgia — proud in her love of independence — would 



184 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

rise np to a man, and crossing to the southernmost 
bound of Abolitionism, would say to Lincoln and his 
myrmidons, " Thus far, traitor I shalt thou come ; 
but 710 farther ! " (Tremendous applause.) This 
good old commonwealth — solitary and alone, if need 
be — will fight until she sees the last foul invader in 
his grave ! And I know, fellow-citizens, that thej;e 
is no loyal son of Georgia before me, whose heart 
does not beat a warm response to this pledge. 
(Cries of, " We will ! we will ! ") 

But we not only need soldiers, we must have 
treasure to carry on this war. Private contributions 
have been offered to a vast amount. I will mention 
an instance which occurred on the Mississippi a few 
days ago. An aged man — whose gray hairs and 
tottering limbs forbade his entering the ranks, and 
whose children of the first and second generations 
were in the ranks of his country's defenders — was 
asked how much he would give to carry on the war. 
The spirit of the old man rose up in him — '' Tell 
them," he said, " that my yearly crop of 1,000 bales 
of cotton they may have. Only give me enough to 
sustain me, and let the balance go to my country ! " 
Offers of this sort come pouring in upon the Govern- 
ment from all parts of the country. 

But the Government does not require contribu- 
tions from individuals ; she has the means within 



SPEECH OF HOWELL COBB. 185 

herself of sustaining this war. [N^o donations are 
necessary, except for the equipment of your own 
vohmteers and those you can and will provide for. 
But I tell you what you may do. Those of you 
who raise large crops of cotton, when your cotton 
is ready for market, give it to your Government at 
its market value, receive in return its bonds, and 
let it sell your produce to Europe for the specie to 
sustain our brave " boys " in Yirginia. This was 
agreed on at Montgomery, and we promised to 
throw out the suggestion, that the people might 
think about it. 

I raise some cotton, and every thing above my 
necessary expenses my Government shall have. 
When this was proposed in Congress, a gentleman 
from Mississippi rose up and said that he did not 
raise cotton ; it was his misfortune not to be able to 
help his country in that manner. " But," said he, 
" I will go home and canvass my section, and every 
man that I meet, who raises cotton, sugar, and rice, 
I will persuade him to sell it to his Government.-' 

But this patriotism is not confined to the men ; 
the women, with warm hearts and busy fingers, are 
helping the soldiers. I will give you an instance 
that happened at Montgomery. A message was 
received on Friday evening that a thousand sand 
bags were wanted, with which to build batteries to 



186 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

protect onr men at Pensacola. What could be 
done ? Some one suggested that the ladies be made 
acquainted with our wants. It was Saturday morn- 
ing. Monday evening I received a notice to attend 
a meeting: to be held at 5 o'clock in the Methodist 
church. Between the reception of the message and 
5 o'clock that evening, the money had been raised, 
the cloth purchased, and the lovely women of that 
city, with their own delicate hands, at their homes 
and in the sanctuary of the living God, were making 
bags ; and on Tuesday I saw the sand bags start for 
Pensacola, to protect our brave soldiers ! (Cheers.) 
Talk about subjugating us ! Why, we might lay 
aside the men, and all Abolitiondom couldnH run 
down the women even ! (Prolonged applause.) 

They say at the IS'orth that we are alarmed. 
What cause have we to be so ? When the Congress 
assembled at Montgomery there were only six States 
represented. IS'ow there are nine, and every breeze 
that comes from Tennessee bears us news that her 
people are rising up unanimously against the usurpa- 
tions of Lincoln. l!Torth Carolina — the State of my 
parentage, and I love her with a love next to my 
native State — she, too, is aroused, and her Conven- 
tion has unanimously adopted the ordinance of 
secession ; and theso, States will soon shine as bright 
stars in our galaxy. With such aids as these, and 



SPEECH OF HOWELL COBB. 187 



with SO many brave hearts in our hind, we can never 
he conquered! 

I have spoken enthusiastically, but pardon me. 
I can say nothing more. (Cries of, " Go on ! ") 
You will excuse me, as I have been speaking at 
every town on the road, and am quite hoarse. 



188 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 



GEN. E. E. LEE'S ADDEESS TO HIS TEOOPS. 



Headquaetees Army Noetheen Vieginia, ) 
October 2d, 1862. \ 

In reviewing the achievements of the army dur- 
ing the present campaign, the commanding general 
cannot withhold the expression of his admiratioJJ of 
the indomitable courage it has displayed in battle, 
and its cheerful endurance of privation and hardship 
on the march. 

Since your great victories around Eichmond yon 
have defeated the enemy at Cedar Mountain, 
expelled him from the Rappahannock, and, after a 
conflict of three days, utterly repulsed him on the 
plains of Manassas, and forced him to take shelter 
within the fortifications around his capital. 

Without halting for repose, you crossed the 
Potomac, stormed the heights of Harper's Ferry 
made prisoners of more that 11,000 men, and cap- 



GEN. R. E. lee's ADDRESS TO HIS TROOPS. 189 

tiired upwards of seventy pieces of artillery, all their 
small arms, and other munitions of war. 

While one corps of the army was thus engaged, 
the other ensured its success by arresting at Boons- 
boro' the combined armies of the enemy, advancing 
under their favorite general to the relief of their 
beleaguered comrades. 

On the field of Sharpsburg, with less than one- 
third his numbers, you resisted, from daylight until 
dark, the whole army of the enemy, and repulsed 
every attack along his entire front of more than four 
miles in extent. 

The whole of the following day you stood pre- 
pared to resume the conflict on the same ground, 
and retired next morning, without molestation, 
across the Potomac. Two attempts, subsequently 
made by the enemy, to follow you across the river, 
have resulted in his complete discomfiture and being 
driven back with loss. 

Achievements such as these demand much valor 
and patriotism. History records few examples of 
greater fortitude and endurance than this army has 
exhibited ; and I am commissioned by the President 
to thank you in the name of the Confederate States 
for the undying fame you have won for their arms. 

Much as you have done, much more remains to 
be accomplished. The enemy again threaten us 



190 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

witli invasion, and to your tried valor and patriotism 
the countrj looks with confidence for deliverance 
and safety. Your past exploits give assurance that 
this confidence is not misplaced. 

E. E. Lee, 
Commanding General, 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 191 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 

AT EIOHMOND, VA., APEIL 22, 1861. 

The distinguished gentleman was introduced to 
the throng by Mayor Mayo, and received with hearty 
cheers. In response, Mr. Stephens returned his 
acknowledgments for the warmth of the personal 
greeting, and his most profound thanks for it as tlie 
representative of the Confederate States. He spoke 
of the rejoicing the secession of Virginia had caused 
among her Southern sisters. Her people would feel 
justified if they could hear it as he had. E'orth 
Carolina was out, and did not know exactly how 
she got out. The fires that were blazing here he 
had seen all along his track from Montgomery to 
Kichmond. At Wilmington he had counted on the 
street twenty flags of the Confederate States. 

The news from Tennessee was equally cheering — 
there the mountains were on fire. Some of the 
States still hesitated, but soon all would be in. 



192 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

TeDnessee was no longer in the late Union. She 
was out bj the resolutions of her popular assemblies 
in Memphis and other cities. Kentucky would soon 
be out; her people were moving. Missouri— who 
could doubt the stand she would take ? — when her 
Governor, in reply to Lincoln's insolent proclama- 
tion, had said : " You shall have no troops for the 
furtherance of your illegal, unchristian, and dia- 
bolical schemes ! " Missouri will soon add another 
star to the Southern galaxy. Where Maryland is 
you all know. The first Southern blood has been 
shed on her soil, and Yirginia would never stand by 
and see her citizens shot down. The cause of Balti- 
more is the cause of tlie whole South. 

He said the cause we were engaged in was that 
which attached people to the Constitution of the late 
United States — it was the cause of civil, religious, 
and constitutional liberty. Many of us looked at 
the Constitution as the anchor of safety. In 
Georgia the people had been attached to the pre- 
vious Union, but the Constitution which governed it 
was framed by the Southern talent and understand- 
ing. Assaults had been made on it ever since it was 
established. 

Lately a latitudinous construction had been made 
by the North, while we of the South sought to inter- 
pret it as it was — advocating strict construction, 



SrEECH OF HOX. A. H. STEPHENS. 193 

State rights, tlie right of the people to rule, &c. He 
Bpoke of all the fifteen Southern States as advocat- 
ing ^this construction. To violate the principles of 
the Constitution was to initiate revolution ; and the 
JSTorthern States had done this. 

The Constitution framed at Montgomery dis- 
carded the obsolete ideas of the old Constitution, but 
had preserved its better portion, with some modifica- 
tions, suggested by the experience of the past ; and 
it had been adopted by the Confederate States, who 
would stand by it. The old Constitution had been 
made an engine of power to crueh out liberty ; that 
of the Confederate States to preserve it. The old 
Constitution was improved in our hands, and those 
living under it had, like the phoenix, risen from their 
ashes. 

The revolution lately begun did not effect alone 
property, but liberty. He alluded to Lincoln's call 
for 75,000 volunteers, and said he could find no 
authority in the old Constitution for such a flagrant 
abuse of power. His second proclamation had stig- 
matized as pirates all who sailed in letters of 
marque ; this was also in violation of the Constitu- 
tion, which alone gave Congress that power. 

What had the friends of liberty to hope for ? 
Beginning in usurpation, where would it end? 
You are, however, said he, no longer under the rule 
9 



194 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

of this tyrant. Witli strong arms and stout hearts 
you have now resolved to stand in the defence of 
liberty. The Confederate States have but asserted 
their rights. They believed that their rulers derived 
their just powers from the consent of the governed. 
'No one had the right to deny the existence of the 
sovereign right of secession. Our people did not 
want to meddle with the Northern States — only 
wanted the latter to leave them alone. When did 
Virginia ever ask the assistance of the General Gov- 
ernment ? 

If there is sin in our institutions, we bear the 
blame, and will stand acquitted by natural law, and 
the higher law of the Creator. We stand upon the 
law of God and Kature. The Southern States did 
not wish to resort to arms after secession. Mr. 
^Stephens alluded to the negotiations between Major 
Anderson and the authorities of the Confederate 
States, to demonstrate the proposition. History, he 
said, if rightly written, will acquit us of a desire to 
shed our brother's blood. 

The law of necessity and of right compelled us 
to act as we did. He had reason to believe that the 
Creator smiled on it. The Federal flag was taken 
down without the loss of a single life. He believed 
that Providence would be with us and bless us to 
the end. We had appealed to the God of Battles 



SPEECH OF HON. A. H. STEPHENS. 195 

for the justness of our cause. Madness and fully 
ruled at AVashiiigton. Had it not have been so, 
several of the States would have been in the Union 
for a year to come. Maryland would join us, and 
may be, ere long, the principles that Washington 
fought for might be again administered in the city 
that bore his name. 

Every son of the South, from the Potomac to the 
Rio Grande, should rally to the su2:)port of Mary- 
land. If Lincoln quits Washington as ignominioiisly 
as he entered it, God's will will have been accom- 
plished. The argument was now exhausted. Be 
prepared ; stand to your arms — defend your wives 
and firesides. lie alluded to the momentous conse- 
quences of the issue involved. Hather than be 
conquered, let every second man rally to drive back 
the invader. The conflict may be terrible, but the 
victory will be ours. Yirginians, said he, you fight 
for the preservation of your sacred rights — tlie land 
of Patrick Henry — to keep from desecration the 
tomb of Washington, the graves of Madison, 
Jefferson, and all you hold most dear. 



196 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 



THE LAST MANIFESTO OF THE OONFED- 
EEATE OONGEESS. 

JUNE 15, 1864. 

Joint resolution declaring the dispositions, jprinci- 
pies and' purposes of the Confederate States in 
relation to the existing war with the United States. 

Whereas, It is due to tlie great cause of hiiraanity 
and civilization, and especially to the heroic sacrifices 
of their gallant army in the field, that no means, 
consistent with a proper self-respect, and the 
approved usages of nations, should be omitted by the 
Confederate States to enlighten the public opinion 
of the world with regard to the true character of the 
srruggle in wliich they are engaged, and the disposi- 
sitions, principles and purposes by which they are 
actuated; therefore, 

I^esolved hy the Congress of the Confederate' 
States of America, That the following manifesto be 
issued in their name and by their authority, and that 



THE LAST MANIFESTO. 197 

the President be requested to cause co])ies tlieroof to 
bs transmitted to our commissioners abroad, to tlie 
end that the same may be laid before foreign Gov- 
ernments. 



MANIFESTO OF THE CONGRESS OF CONFEDEExVTE STATES 
OF AMERICA, RELATIVE TO THE EXISTLNG WAR WITH 
THE UNITED STATES. 

The Congress of the Confederate States of 
America, ackno^Yledging their responsibility to the 
opinion' of the civilized world, to the great law of 
Christian philanthropy, and to the Supreme Ruler of 
the universe, for the part they have been compelled 
to bear in this sad spectacle of w^ar and carnage 
which this continent has, for the last three years, 
exhibited to the eyes of afflicted humanity, deems the 
present a fitting occasion to declare the principles, 
the sentiments and the purposes by which they have 
been and are still actuated. 

They have ever deeply deplored the necessity 
which constrained them to take up arms in defence 
of their rights and of the free institutions derived 
from their ancestors ; and there is nothing they more 
ardently desire than peace, whensoever their enenty, 
by ceasing from the unhallowed war waged upon 
them, shall permit them to enjoy in peace the shel- 
tering protection of those hereditary rights and of 



198 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

those cherislied institutions. The series of successes 
with which it has pleased Ahnighty God, in so 
signal a manner, to hless our arms on almost every 
point of our invaded border since the opening of the 
present campaign, enables us to profess this desire of 
peace, in the interests of civilization and humanity, 
without danger of having our motives misinterpreted, 
or of the declaration being ascribed to any unmanly 
sentiment, or any distrust of our ability fully to 
maintain our cause. The repeated and disastrous 
checks, foreshadowing ultimate discomfiture, which 
their gigantic army, directed against the capital 
of the Confederacy, has already met with, are but 
a continuation of the same providential successes 
for us. We do not refer • to these successes in any 
spirit of vain boasting, but in humble acknowledg- 
ment of that Almighty proteetion which has vouch- 
safed and granted them. 

The world must now see that eight millions of 
people, inhabiting so extensive a territory, with such 
varied resources and such numerous facilities for 
defence as the benignant bounty of nature has 
bestowed upon us, and animated with one spirit to 
encounter every privation and sacrifice of ease, of 
health, of property, of life itself, rather than be 
degraded from the condition of free and independenf 
States into which they were born, can never be con- 



THE LAST MANIFESTO. 199 

quered. Will not our adversaries themselves begiu 
to feel that humanity has bled Ions; enouo-h • that 
tears and blood and treasure enough have been 
expended in a bootless undertaking, covering their 
own land, no less than ours, with a pall of mourning, 
and exposing them, far more than ourselves, to the 
catastrophe of financial exhaustion and bankruptcy, 
not to speak of the loss of their liberties by the 
despotism engendered in an aggressive warfare upon 
the liberties of another and kindred people ? Will 
they be willing, by a longer perseverance in a wan- 
ton and hopeless contest, to make this continent, 
which they so long boasted to be the chosen abode 
of liberty and self-government, of peace and a higher 
.civilization, the theatre of the most causeless and 
prodigal efi'usion of blood which the world has ever 
seen, of a virtual relapse into the barbarism of the 
ruder ages, and of the destruction of constitutional 
freedom by the lawlessness of usurped power ? 

These are questions which our adversaries will 
decide for themselves. We desire to stand acquitted 
before the tribunal of the world, as well as in the 
eyes of omniscient justice, of any responsibility for 
the origin or prolongation of a war as contrary to the 
spirit of the age as to the traditions and acknowl- 
edged maxims of the political system of America. 

On this continent, whatever opinions may have 



200 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 

prevailed elsewhere, it has ever been held and 
acknowledged bj all parties that government, to be 
lawful, must be founded on the consent of the gov- 
erned. We were forced to dissolve our federal 
connection with our former associates by their ag- 
gressions on the fundamental principles of our 
compact of union with them ; and in doing so, we 
exercised a right consecrated in the great charter of 
American liberty — the right of a free people, when a 
government proves destructive of the ends for which 
it was established, to recur to original principles and 
to institute new guards for their security. The sep- 
arate independence of the States, as sovereign, and 
co-equal members of the Federal Union, had never 
been surrendered ; and the pretension of applying to 
independent communities, so constituted and organ- 
ized, the ordinary rules for coercing and reducing 
rebellious subjects to obedience, was a solecism in 
terms, as well as an outrage on the principles of 
public law. 

The war made upon the Confederate States was, 
therefore, wholly one of aggression. On our side, it 
lias been strictly defensive. Born freemen, and the 
descendants of a gallant ancestry, we had no option . 
but to stand up in defence of our invaded firesides, 
of our desecrated altars, of our violated liberties and 
birthright, and of the prescriptive institutions which 



THE LAST MANIFESTO. 201 

guard and protect them. 'We have not interfered, 
nor do we wish, in any manner whatever, to inter- 
fere with the internal peace and prosperity of the 
States arrayed in hostihty against ns, or with the 
freest devek)pment of their destinies in ari}^ form of 
action or Hne of policy they may think proper to 
adopt for themselves. All we ask, is a like immu- 
nity for ourselves, and to be left in the undisturbed 
enjoyment of those inalienable rights of " life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness," which our common 
ancestors declared to be the equal heritage of all the 
parties to the social compact. 

Let them forbear aggressions upon us, and the 
war is at an end. If there be questions which 
require adjustment by negotiation, we have ever 
been willing and are still willing to enter into com- 
munication with our adversaries in a spirit of peace, 
of equity, and manly frankness. Strong in the 
persuasion of the justice of our cause, in the gallant 
devotion of our citizen-soldiers, and of the whole 
body of our people, and above all in the gracious 
protection of Heaven, we are not afraid to avow a 
sincere desire for peace, on terms consistent with our 
honor and the permanent security of our rights, and 
an earnest aspiration to see the world once more 
restored to the benificent pursuits of industry and of 
mutual intercourse and exchanges, so essential to its 
9* 



202 ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. 

well-being, and which have been so gravely interrupted 
by the existence of this unnatural war in America. 

But if our adversaries, or those whom they have 
placed in authority, deaf to the voice of reason and 
justice, settled against the dictates of both prudence 
and humanity by a presumptuous and delusive con- 
fidence in their own numbers, or those of their black 
and foreign mercenaries, shall determine upon an in- 
definite prolongation of the contest, upon them be the 
responsibility of a decision so ruinous to themselves 
and so injurious to the interests and repose of mankind. 

For ourselves, we have no fear of the result. 
The wildest picture ever drawn of a disordered imag- 
ination comes short of the extravagance which could 
dream of the conquest of eight millions of people, 
resolved with one mind " to die freemen rather than 
live slaves," and forewarned by the savage and ex- 
terminating spirit in which this war has been waged 
upon them, and by the mad avowals of its patrons 
and supporters, of the worse than Egyptian bondage 
that awaits them in the event of their subjugation. 

With these declarations of our dispositions, our 
principles, and our purposes, we commit our cause 
to the enlightened judgment of the world, to the 
sober reflections of our adversaries themselves, and to 
the solemn and righteous arbitrament of Heaven. 



LAST PROCLAMATION OF PKESIDENT DAVIS. 203 



THE LAST PEOOLAMATION OF PEESIDENT 
. DAVIS. 



Danville, Va./ April 5, 1865. 

The General-in-Chief found it necessary to make 
such movements of his troops as to uncover the 
capital. It would be unwise to conceal the moral 
and material injury to our cause resulting from the 
occupation of our capital by the enemy. It is 
equally unwise and unwoi thy of us to allow our own 
energies to falter, and our efforts to become relaxed 
under reverses, however calamitous they may be. 
For many months the largest and finest army of the 
Confederacy, under a leader whose presence inspires 
equal confidence in the troops and the people, has 
been greatly trammelled by the necessity of keeping 
constant watch over the approaches to the capital, 
and has thus been forced to forego more than one 
opportunity for promising enterprise. It is for us, 



204 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

mj countrjmeH, to show by our bearing under 
reverses bow wretcbed bas been tbe self-deception of 
tbose wbo have believed us less able to endure mis- 
fortune with fortitude than to encounter dangers 
with courage. 

We have now entered upon a new phase of tbe 
struggle. Kelieved from tbe necessity of guarding 
particular points, our armj will be free to move from 
point to point, to strike tbe enemy in detail far from 
bis base. Let us but will it, and we are free. 

Animated by tbat confidence in your spirit and 
fortitude wbicb never yet failed me, I announce to 
you, fellow-countrymen, tbat it is my purpose to 
maintain your cause witb my wbole beart and soul ; 
tbat I will never consent to abandon to tbe enemy 
one foot of tbe soil of any of tbe States of tbe Con- 
federacy. Tbat . Yirginia — noble State — whose 
ancient renown has been eclipsed by her still more 
glorious recent history ; whose bosom bas been bared 
to receive the main shock of this war ; whose sons 
and daughters have exhibited heroism so sublime as 
to render her illustrious in all time to come — that 
Yirginia, with the help of the people, and by the 
blessing of Providence, shall lye held and defended, 
and, no peace ever be made with the infamous inva- 
ders of her territory. 

If by the stress of numbers we should ever be 



LAST PEOCLAMATION OF PRESIDENT DAVIS. 205 

compelled to a temporary withdrawal from her lim- 
its, or those of any other Border State, we will 
return nntil the baffled and exhausted enemy shall 
abandon in despair his endless and impossible task 
of making slaves of a people resolved to be free. 

Let us, then, not despond, my countrymen, but, 
relying on God, meet the foe with fresh defiance, and 
with un conquered and unconquerable hearts. 

Jefferson Davis. 



206 ECHOES FKOM THE SOUTH. 



GENEEALS OF THE CORFEDEEATE AEMY.* 



GENERALS. 



1. Samuel Cooper, Yirginia, adjutant general. 

2. Albert S. Johnston, Texas, commanding in 
Kentucky. 

3. Joseph E. Johnston, Yirginia, commanding 
J^orthern Yirginia. 

4. Eobert E. Lee, Yirginia, commanding South 
Atlantic coast. 

5. P. G. T. Beauregard, Louisiana, commanding 
Army of Potomac. 

6. Braxton Bragg, Louisiana, commanding at 
Pensacola. 

* This list refers generally to the first period of the war. There 
were, of course, mauy shiltings of comina,nLl, promotions, changes 
in the names of military department^, &c., that it is impossible to 
include. The early Confederate armies in Virginia were known as 
"the Army of the Potomac " and " the Army of the Shenandoah." 
AiWwards there were only known two great army organizations 
in the Confederacy, east of the Mississippi River — "the Army of 
Northern Virginia" and " the Army of Tennessee." 



GENERALS OF THE CONFEDERATE ARifY. 207 

LIEUTENAJSTT-GENERALS. 

1. Leonidas Polk, Louisiana, commanding at 
Memphis. 

2. Earl Yau Dorn, Mississippi, Army of Potomac. 

3. Theopliilus II. Holmes, ISTorth Carolina, Army 
of Potomac. 

4. James Longstreet, Alabama, Army of Po- 
tomac. 

5. Thomas J. Jackson, Yirginia, commanding 
Northwestern Yirginia. 

6. Edmund Kirby Smith, Florida, Army of Po- 
tomac. 

7. Richard S. Ewell, Yirginia, Army of Potomac. 

MAJOR-GENERALS. 

1. David E. Twiggs, Georgia, resigned. 

2. Gustavus W. Smith, Kentucky, Army of Po- 
tomac. 

3. William J. Hardee, Georgia, Missouri. 

4. Benjg,min Huger, South Carolina, command- 
ing at JSTorfolk. 

5. John B. Magruder, Yirginia, commanding at 
Yorktown. 

6. Mansfield Lovell, Yirginia, commanding coast 
of Louisiana. 

7. George. B. Crittenden, Kentucky, command- 
ing East Tennessee. 



208 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

8. Milledge L. Bonham, South Carolina, Army 
of Potomac. 

9. John B. Flojd, Yirginia, commanding Army 
of Kanawha. 

10. Henry A. Wise, Yirginia, waiting orders. 

11. Ben McCulloch, Texas, Missouri. 

12. Henry E. Jackson, Georgia, resigned. 

13. Robert S. Garnett, Yirginia, killed in action. 

14. "William H. T. Hill, Georgia, resigned. 

15. Bernard E. Bee, South Carolina, killed in 
action. 

16. Alexander R. Lawton, Georgia, commanding 
coast of Georgia. . 

17. Gideon J. Pillow, Tennessee, Kentucky. 

18. Samuel R. Anderson, Tennessee, Kentucky. 

19. Daniel S. Donelson, Tennessee, coast of South 
Carolina. 

20. David R. Jones, South Carolina, Army of 
Potomac. 

21. Jones M. Withers, Alabama, commanding 
coast of Alabama. 

22. John C. Pemberton, Yirginia, coast of South 
Carolina. 

23. John H. Winder, Mar^^land, Richmond. 

24. Jubal A. Early, Yirginia, Army of Potomac. 

25. Thomas B. Elournoy, Arkansas, died in Ai*- 
kansas. 



GENKRALS OF TUE CONFEDERATE ARMY. 209 

26. Samuel Jones, Virginia, Army of Potomac. 

27. Arnold Elzej, Maryland, Army of Potomac. 
2S. Daniel H. Hill, JSTorth Carolina, Army of 

Potomac. 

29. Henry H. Sigley, Louisiana, Texas frontier. 

30. William H. C. Whiting, Georgia, Army of 
Potomac. 

31. William H. Loring, IS^orth Carolina, Western 
Yirginia. 

32. Kichard H. Anderson, Soutli Carolina, Pen- 
sacola. 

33. Albert Pike, Arkansas, Indian Commissioner. 

34. Thomas T. Fauntleroy, Virginia, resigned. 

35. Kobert Toombs, Georgia, Army of Potomac. 

36. Daniel Ruggles, Virginia, Louisiana. 

37. Charles Clark, Mississippi, Army of Potomac. 

38. Eos well S. Ripley, South Carolina, coast of 
South Carolina. 

39. Isaac P. Trimble, Maryland, Army of Poto- 
mac. 

40. John B. Grayson, Kentucky, died in Florida. 

41. Paul O. Hebert, Louisiana, coast of Texas. 

42. Pichard C. Catlin, I^orth Carolina, command- 
ing coast of North Carolina. 

43. Felix K. Zollicoffer, Tennessee, Eastern Ken- 
tucky. 

44. Benj. F. Cheatham, Tennessee, Kentucky. 



210 ECHOES FEOM THE SOUTH. 

45. Joseph R. Anderson, Yirginia, coast of iN'orth 
Carolina. 

46. Simon B. Buckner, Kentucky, Kentucky. 

47. Leroy Pope Walker, Alabama, Alabama. 

48. Albert G. Blanchard, Louisiana, l^orfolk. 

49. Gabriel S. Rains, l^ortli Carolina, Yorktown. 

50. J. E. B. Stuart, Yirginia, Army of Potomac. 

51. Lafayette McLaws, Georgia, Yorktown. 

52. Thomas F. Drayton, South Carolina, coast of 
South Carolina. 

53. Thomas C. Hindman, Arkansas, Kentucky. 

54. Adley H. Gladden, Louisiana, Pensacola. 

55. John Porter McCown, Tennessee, Kentucky. 

56. Llyod Tighlman, Kentucky, Kentucky. 

57. Nathan G. Evans, South Carolina, coast of 
South Carolina. 

58. Cadmus M. Wilcox, Tennessee, Army of Po- 
tomac. 

59. Philip St. George Cocke, Yirginia, died in 
Yirginia. 

60. R. F. Rhodes, Alabama, Army of Potomac. 

61. Richard Taylor, Louisiana, Army of Potomac. 

62. Louis T. Wigfall, Texas, Army of Potomac. 

63. James H. Trapier, South Carolina, coast of 
Florida. 

64. Samuel G. French, Mississippi, Army of Po- 
tomac. 



GENERALS OF THE CONFEDERATE ARMY. 211 

65. William II. Carroll, Tennessee, East Ten- 
nessee. 

66. Hngli W. Mercer, Georgia, . 

67. Humphrey Marshall, Kentucky, Kerntucky. 

68. John C. Breckinridge, Kentucky, Kentucky. 

69. Richard Griffin, Mississippi, Army of Po- 
tomac. 

TO. Alexander P. Stewart, Kentucky, Kentucky. 

71. William Montgomery Gardner, Georgia, on 
furlough. 

72. Richard B. Garnett, Yirginia, Army of Po- 
tomac. 

73. William Mahone, Yirginia, ^N'orfolk. 

74. L. O'Brien Branch, l^orth Carolina, coast of 
IN'orth Carolina. 

75. Maxey Gregg, South Carolina, coast of South 
Carolina. 



The only Official and Aiitliorized Southern History of the "War. 
By E. A. POLLARD. 



THE LOST CAUSE. 

By EDWARD A. POLLARD, of Virginia, 
Editor of the Eicbmond '* Examiner " during the War. 



Comprising a fcxl and authentic account of the rise and progress of 

the late southern confederacy— the campaigns, battles, 

Incidents and Adventures of the most gigantio 

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Complete in one large Hoijal Octavo Tolunie of over 700 pages. 

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a Southern man, who is willing to devote his time and talents to the A-indica- 
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intelligent, and in\-ite the attention of all honest inquirers. 

Mr. Pollard, of all writers in the South, is doubtless the best qualified to 
prepare a complete and Standard History of the War, and to commit to the 
present and future generations a faithful and worthy record of their great 
struggle, and of a cause lost save in honor. 

He comes to the work by the encouragement and authority of Generals 
R. E. Lee, J. E. Johnston, Beauregard, "Dick" Taylor, Fitzhugh Lee, Ex-Gov. 
Wise, and other distinguished Confederate leaders. 



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OP 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 



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By Hon. J. T. HEADLEY, 

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Bt Hon. J. T. HEADLEY, ' 

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